The frontline of state tourism is clearly drawn at the front door of the Mississippi Welcome Center on Washington Street.

Welcome Center employees take every chance to promote the state and its attractions, the center’s supervisor Debbie Dolan told Port City Kiwanis during the club’s breakfast meeting Thursday.

The center offers a safe clean place to stop, relax, stretch and use the restroom for visitors who might be traveling specifically to Mississippi or just passing through to other destinations, Dolan said.

“They can make it 180 miles out of the state and not have to stop. So my staff, very likely can be the only contact they have within the state of Mississippi,” Dolan said.

Sharing the story allows people to learn about the area and in hopes that they spend more time and money in the Magnolia State, rather than just passing through. Allowing Mississippians to do it makes it even better, Dolan aid.

“We’re tired of other people telling our story. We’ve got it all right here. We’ve got history,” Dolan said. “It’s time for us to market us.”

The pitch must be working, because visitors have been spending more in Warren County.

In May, Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau director Bill Seratt announced that revenue from tourism increased 5.5 percent from approximately $35 million in 2013 to $36.9 million in 2014. Hospitality tax revenue also increased 2.5 percent form $1.12 million to $1.15 million, he said.

Hotel occupancy rates also increased from 54.9 percent 55.8 percent, he said, and more than 81,000 sought information at one of VCVB’s four information centers. One of the VCVB centers is inside the Welcome Center on Washington Street, Dolan said.

“We want to promote our city and our state. It’s not just my job it’s my passion to watch us all grow and market each other,” Dolan said.

Some of the biggest points of interest for tourists are Vicksburg’s role in the Civil War and historic U.S. 61.

“That’s where the blood and the tears and the sweat are. It’s in our soil all over the state,” Dolan said of U.S. 61, also known as the Blues Highway. “We are the birthplace of America’s music. All of it. It’s not just the blues. In Meridian, Jimmy Rogers started it.”