The City of Natchez took a bold step in the right direction for tourism last week.

City officials signed a contract with Natchez Pilgrimage Tours to allow NPT to sell tickets at the Natchez Visitor Reception Center during both spring and fall Pilgrimages.

The contract will allow NPT to put up and staff a ticket booth at the visitor center seven days a week.

This is a great step for the city and Natchez Pilgrimage Tours &045; and for our reputation as a tourist-friendly community.

While this is an idea officials have discussed off and on for several years, for one reason or another it never quite came to fruition.

We’re glad to see both entities come together and do what is right for the community.

Selling tickets at the visitor center was also an idea in a recent tourism consultant’s report about Natchez. The move is tourist-friendly because it gives our visitors a one-stop shop for information about the community and its tourism locations when they come for the biggest events of the year &045; spring and fall Pilgrimage.

With group tour ticket sales up last year but individual ticket sales down, perhaps this move will encourage more of the walk-in &045; make that drive-in &045; traffic coming through town to stop and look around at what Natchez has to offer during these peak times.

The cooperation the city and NPT have shown through signing this contract should be a good sign of things to come in terms of the public-private partnership we need to make tourism the best industry it can be for our community.

Kudos to all involved in getting this project under way.