Tennessee, Alabama join tourism compact for Natchez Trace

TUPELO - Communities along the 444-mile Natchez Trace Parkway linking Nashville with Natchez will benefit from an added marketing boost as Alabama and Tennessee joined Mississippi as partners in the Natchez Trace Compact.

The announcement, made recently at the parkway's central headquarters in Tupelo, resulted in an independent threestate cooperative. The group held its first meeting with its new partners later that afternoon to formalize plans on how the organization will work to promote and enhance marketing and visitor education efforts along the route in what the compact hopes will be a win-win for cities located along the parkway. Members also heard details from parkway officials regarding a formal memorandum of understanding, under which the compact's current members operate.

A relatively young organization, the compact was formed in 1999 by Mississippi tourism officials in Tupelo, Kosciusko, Ridgeland, Jackson and Natchez. Since that time, the organization has been working with National Park Service staff on both establishing and refining tourism promotion projects, but has concentrated only on Mississippi communities. According to the latest research conducted by the compact, the average travel party size using the Trace consists of 2.3 adults who spend 3.1 days touring and spend $470.