Lenore Barkley, executive director of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, stands on the second floor of the bureau during its 30th birthday party Thursday. (The Vicksburg Post/C. TODD SHERMAN)

[03/08/02]Vicksburg is an easy sell because it has so much to offer, Lenore Barkley said at the Convention and Visitors Bureau’s 30th birthday party Thursday afternoon.

“Vicksburg is a brand name,” said Barkley, who has been executive director for 17 of her 25 years with the bureau, during which time its full-time staff has grown from two to eight and its inflation-adjusted annual budget has grown by nearly as large a proportion.

“In spite of the economy and the (Sept. 11) tragedy we feel like this is going to be a good spring,” Barkley said. “A lot of people stayed home last fall and are getting cabin fever and are ready to make a trip.”

The VCVB, now operating on about $1 million per year collected by an extra 1-cent sales tax on restaurant meals and room rentals, was created with legislation spearheaded by a coalition of tourism leaders. The mission was to formalize and build what was a casual industry.

Barkley, recently tapped as a charter member of the state Tourism Hall of Fame, said she is looking forward to next weekend’s Pilgrimage opening dates and the second Vicksburg International Chamber Music Festival, set to start April 2.

“We had first-class entertainers and performances last year,” Barkley said of the initial chamber music festival. “We’ve started promoting a bit earlier this year and are hoping it will gain in attention and popularity.”

The VCVB is governed by a board of city and county appointees who are not paid. The staff, Barkley said, spends about equal amounts of time promoting the city to convention planners and group-tour leaders, with staff members Lisa Nosser and Al Elmore focusing on those two areas respectively.

“We all promote to the general public,” Barkley said, adding that the city’s four tourist-information outlets, including the state welcome center, give Vicksburg more opportunities to get information in the hands of visitors. The VCVB tries to get a copy of its visitors’ guide in the hands of all who pass through town, hoping that those not stopping for a visit may do so later, Barkley said.

The VCVB also promotes Vicksburg overseas and, about 10 years ago, published a capsule history of the city in Italian, French, German and Spanish to hand to visitors whose foreign accents might be detected by its staff.

“We have lots of international visitors,” Barkley said, adding that top foreign countries for visitors are Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands.

Most visitors know of Vicksburg for its history, Barkley said, but relatively few know Coca-Cola was first bottled here. “We usually have to introduce them to Coke,” Barkley said of the fact that bottling was begun here in 1894.

Barkley has been instrumental in getting articles about Vicksburg published in many high-profile travel publications. Barkley called developing and maintaining relations with travel writers a high priority. Even though she is not a travel writer, she joined the Society of American Travel Writers in 1989, goes to its meetings and invites writers to visit Vicksburg, she said.

Barkley said she enjoys seeing Vicksburg through the eyes of visitors. “We see people doing nothing but having fun, and hear wonderful comments about how charming and quaint Vicksburg is,” she said. “We drive by the attractions all the time and don’t think about them.”

Barkley has seen the number of attractions in Vicksburg grow from six to 28, with the only operating tour homes when she joined the organization being Cedar Grove and McRaven.

Vicksburg tourism’s main need, Barkley said, is a mobile riverboat. “Visitors are disappointed when they find out they can’t go on the river,” Barkley said.

Barkley said the VCVB works closely with similar organizations in other Mississippi cities. “We don’t recognize them as competitors,” Barkley said, “because if they come to this part of the state they will probably come to Vicksburg.”