Cleveland, Bolivar officials hope campaign boosts tourism

CLEVELAND - There may not be smokestacks but tourism is definitely an industry, and City of Cleveland and Bolivar County officials are capitalizing on that fact.

Wayne Cole, Cleveland city administrator, said tourism might be what is keeping the city's sales tax revenues stable. Revenues from

"I think our big drawing card is that we want to be the hub of the Delta," Cole said. "We know we won't be bringing people in from Atlanta, Dallas and Nashville-we just want to be the hub from a regional perspective."

Cheryl Line, director of tourism for the Cleveland-Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce, is working with the newly formed Cleveland Tourism Council to make Cleveland a destination especially for those travelers in a 500-mile radius from the city.

"We're not a Disney by a long shot but we have things that will draw people to the area," Line said.

Enter Cleveland's many restaurants, bed and breakfasts, the Bologna Performing Arts Center, Delta State University (DSU), antique shops, the mile and a quarter asphalt walking track that is currently under construction and other attractions.

"I think we've put ourselves in the (tourism) business," Line said. "We're promoting ourselves through articles, advertising and networking and I think people are paying attention. We have a wonderful product to sell."

Cleveland the 'Crossroads of Culture'

Line and other tourism council members hope Cleveland's new advertising campaign will draw attention to the city and county, which are being nationally promoted as the "Crossroads of Culture in the Mississippi Delta."

Line's job as Cleveland Tourism Council director consists of media placement, overseeing the development of collateral materials, sending out media kits to the press, letters to travel writers and developing a PowerPoint presentation, among other things. And the hard work seems to be paying off-an article has already appeared in one newspaper since Line's public relations push, and another article featuring the area will appear in Southern Living, Line said.

Cleveland, Bolivar County supporting tourism industry

"We have such community support for tourism now," Line said. "They want to see us move in a positive direction."

Billy Nowell, an alderman for the City of Cleveland and a member of the tourism council, believes the city has much potential with tourism because of DSU and the area's blues background. He calls Cleveland the "diamond of the Delta."

"I just want to bring as many tourists into the Cleveland area as possible," Nowell said. He hopes the new walking path, which will run from College Street to Sunflower Road, the new antique mail being built on Sharpe Avenue and the other attractions Cleveland and Bolivar County have to offer will bring visitors in.

Luther Park Brown, director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning at DSU and a tourism council member, believes Cleveland has built-in draws for tourists including the Mississippi River, the area's civil rights history and the blues. DSU's two-year-old Delta Center for Culture and Learning teaches students from colleges all over the U.S. about the rich culture of the Delta.

"Our mission is to do whatever we can to promote the general understanding of the importance of the culture of the Mississippi Delta to the rest of the world," Brown explained. In the last semester alone, the center worked with student groups from the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt, Harvard and Millsaps College. Students stay as long as two weeks in some cases, which provides quite an economic impact on the area.

"While they're here they're both students and tourists," Brown explained. "They're staying in local hotels, buying gas and food and using utilities, and thereby helping the local community."

In the future, Brown believes the tourism industry will become even bigger for Cleveland and Bolivar County and for the Delta as a whole.

"I see tourism as a real growth industry," Brown said.

Cole agreed.

"We're not like Tunica yet with its casinos but tourism is having an impact on Cleveland now, whereas two or three years ago I would have said no," Cole said.