Tourism professionals and representatives from area attractions held their annual tourism celebration event Friday.
The event, held at the I-49 Welcome Center in the Rapides Station area, is designed to raise awareness about things to do locally to start off May as Tourism Awareness Month.
“We expect to see a few hundred people today,” said Sherry Ellington, executive director of the Alexandria/Pineville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“If we get 200-300, that would be great. It’s an opportunity to promote the May festivals, like Alex River Fête and the Little Walter Festival. It sort of kicks off the spring and summer season a little bit, lets people know what they can do.”
About a dozen attractions had booths Friday, including the Alexandria Museum of Art, Kent Plantation House, the Epps House at Louisiana State University of Alexandria, T.R.E.E. House Children’s Museum and Kisatchie National Forest.
“We find a lot of local people are just not familiar with us,” said Sandy Langston, who handles sales and marketing at Loyd Hall Plantation near Cheneyville. “We wanted to be able to show them what we have.”
“It’s a great opportunity to put the zoo out to people who are coming into town,” said Renie Saucier, president of Friends of the Alexandria Zoo. “I think people are surprised when we tell them how much we have here. Many of them are from larger cities, and they’re surprised to find out a town this size has an accredited zoo and a very valuable animal collection.”
Friday’s event included live music and food for visitors, as well as a “birthday celebration” for the late Marion “Little Walter” Jacobs, the blues legend who was honored with a festival in Alexandria last year and will be again on May 24.
“We had a real good response from the attractions,” Ellington said. “We had a couple participate who had not been here before. I was happy to see people stop who were just passing through. They always find something they’re surprised about in Central Louisiana.”
Celebration promotes tourism awareness
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