Meeting gives residents chance to include Vicksburg on tourism map
Published 12:07 pm Friday, April 8, 2016
Vicksburg and Warren County residents have the opportunity Tuesday to put the area on the map, literally.
Officials with National Geographic and the Mississippi River Connections Collaborative will be at the Vicksburg-Warren Chamber of Commerce offices, 2020 Mission 66, for a 10 a.m. meeting to discuss putting the area on an interactive tourism website, www.mississippi.natgeotourism.com, featuring a map of the Mississippi being developed by National Geographic that goes from the river’s headwaters in Minnesota to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico.
Tuesday’s meeting will allow people in the tourism business and residents to discuss the area’s unique culture, attractions, landmarks and activities to be included on the map. Potential visitors will be able to go to the website, call up the map, click on a specific location and see a photo of an attraction, like the Vicksburg National Military Park, Beulah Cemetery or another site.
“We need to get the word out to the people in the community, chamber members and non-members (to attend the meeting) so we can be on the map,” chamber executive director Jane Flowers said. “I’m always about putting Vicksburg on the map.”
Kathleen Bond, superintendent of the Natchez Historical National Park said the new map will be more detailed than the present one on the website.
“They’re (National Geographic) building it now,” she said. “This is going to be the last stakeholder meeting before they go to final production, and this summer there will be more meetings where they will roll out the final product.”
The attractions included on the map “have to local and authentic. It can’t be a chain and it really has to benefit that local homegrown economy. I grew up in Vicksburg, so this is a project that is near and dear to my heart.”
The Mississippi River Geotourism Program is a partnership between National Geographic and the Mississippi River Connections Collaborative, an organization that promotes the Mississippi River as a national treasured landscape, and related organizations.
Geotourism is a program of tourism that includes a range of travel opportunities including culture and heritage, history, food, nature, the outdoors, water, music and arts.
The program’s purpose is to identify, map and promote the unique qualities of the Mississippi River and the communities along its banks.
Program officials gather stories and information from local residents about tourism sites, attractions and businesses along the Mississippi River.
A geotourism map guide has already been printed for the Mississippi Gulf Coast.