Convention and visitors bureaus are like businesses, said Walter Tipton, director of the Natchez bureau. &uot;Each convention and visitors bureau is unique to its community and structured in its own way.

&uot;I know our structure is unique in Mississippi in its relationship to the city and its associations with the Mississippi Welcome Center and the National Park Service.&uot;

The structure perhaps is key to understanding what for many is a complex if not mysterious organization.

What is the convention and visitors bureau? Who are its employees? What are its goals? How is it funded? Where do its revenues go?

Tipton answered these and many other questions recently in a lengthy interview, patiently outlining major components of personnel, finance and goals.

Clearly, he said, one of the most important elements of directing tourism and convention activities in Natchez is partnership with other groups.

The City-CVB connection

Tipton heads up two distinct organizations, and it is important to understand each one and what each does to see the big picture, he said.

The two are the Natchez Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Natchez Department of Tourism Management and Development.

The CVB is the marketing arm of official Natchez tourism promotion.

The city tourism department, on the other hand, is the administrative arm, handling day-to-day operations and maintenance of the visitors center, community center and city auditorium as well as current activities related to service and other contracts for the new convention center under way in downtown Natchez.

&uot;There’s a management agreement between the CVB and the city,&uot; Tipton said. &uot;The city tourism department basically handles the payroll and much of the administrative work for the CVB.&uot;

Why are there two agencies?

Very simple, Tipton said.

&uot;Grants from the state Department of Tourism go only to tourism promotion commissions, and the city wouldn’t qualify in that category.

&uot;The state Department of Tourism is very protective of this money and wants to ensure that it goes toward tourism marketing.

&uot;This helps us to retain the integrity of the convention and visitors bureau. We always keep relating back to those taxes, generated by hotels and restaurants.

&uot;We don’t need to be taking that money and building fire stations with it.&uot;

Funds to operate both the CVB and the tourism department come from a number of sources, in some cases flowing into the CVB and back out again to the local tourism department.

The CVB’s customers

&uot;You won’t see us at many of the small local events because that’s not what we do,&uot; Tipton said.

Rather, the convention and visitors bureau staff focus on definite markets, always at least 100 miles outside Natchez.

These are CVB customers, he said.:

4Motor coach tours

4Association and other group meetings

4Trade shows

4Riverboats

4Individual travelers

4International travelers

4The film industry

&uot;We reach these markets in very different ways,&uot; Tipton said.

&uot;Motor coaches are a market in themselves.

Reaching that customer base means traveling to meetings such as the American Bus Association, he said.

&uot;These annual meetings amount to a sales blitz. Our people would have 40 or so appointments at the meeting.

&uot;You have to be involved to get motor coaches to come to town. You have to build relationships with these people.

&uot;One thing Natchez has going for it is the 60-year history of Pilgrimage.&uot;

To attract association and other group meetings, a CVB sales team has to pull out all stops, Tipton said, courting the leaders of the associations or groups.

An example of an upcoming group meeting is the National Stewardship Conference, which had to have a hotel within walking distance of a church, he said.

Natchez fit that bill, despite the fact that the airport continues to be a drawback for national groups.

For individual travelers, there is the visitors center, Tipton said.

&uot;We have a visitor inquiry system that gets about 2,000 to 3,000 leads a month. We take these leads and send out packets.&uot;

The state of Mississippi also advertises widely, he said, and that elicits questions about Natchez which are passed on to the CVB.

Internet inquiries are growing, too, Tipton said.

&uot;The initial thrust was good. We’ve had over 300,000 hits on that site within the first year.&uot;

The CVB also is heavily involved in promoting events that draw visitors to Natchez, such as the Pilgrimages and the Natchez Opera Festival.

Some new efforts

&uot;We have had a problem with August,&uot; Tipton said.

He is working with several of the larger bed-and-breakfast establishments such as Monmouth, where Regina Trosclair Charboneau is helping to coordinate a new endeavor, he said.

&uot;We’re calling it Great Chefs and Great Houses, and we’ll try to have nationally acclaimed chefs in nationally known homes that can accommodate maybe 40 to 50 people.

&uot;We hope it can be an event of maybe one to two weeks.&uot;

Promoting Natchez as a golfing destination has been a special project of his, Tipton said.

&uot;Golf is one of the big focus niches, and now with the Beau Pre Golf Course opened, that really opened golf in Natchez.&uot;

With Beau Pre as a semi-private golf club and Duncan Park as a public club, the city has an attractive package to offer, he said.

&uot;Packaging golf for groups is very big for conventions,&uot; he said.

That effort has resulted in a brochure titled Natchez Golf Guide, which is a cooperative effort among the Isle of Capri, Duncan Park, Beau Pre and the state Department of Tourism.

Of course, conventions are a big push for the year 2002, when the new convention center is expected to open, Tipton said.

&uot;Our goal is to have 30 large events for 2002, and we’re already started on that.&uot;

The tourism workers

Walter Tipton, as executive director of the Natchez Convention and Visitors Bureau and director of the Natchez Department of Tourism, has staff working in administration, sales, marketing, accounting and maintenance related to tourism development, promotion and reception.

Connie Taunton works for the city and for the CVB. She handles contracts and administrative duties at the visitors center, as well. She is a primary grant writer.

Laura Godfrey works almost exclusively for the convention and visitors bureau in advertising, as film commissioner and in public relations. She also is a grant writer.

Dwight Greene works in heritage tourism and also in group sales.

Greene also is the primary contact for booking the community center and the city auditorium.

Rachel Price works in group sales and coordinates sales in motor coach tours and group and association meetings.

Christy Shelby works in visitor inquiry.

Shirley Wheatley does administrative work for Tipton and has been given part of her time to spend developing the museum operated by the Natchez Association for the Preservation of Afro-American Culture.

Diana Schilling works part time and takes telephone requests for information.

Orshay Seals is head of maintenance and oversees a team of five others who work for him.