NATCHEZ — An extensive travel story featuring Natchez published in the Shreveport Times on Dec. 27 and on the USA Today website on Jan. 2 is generating substantial buzz, Natchez tourism officials said.

The story, written by Henrietta Wildsmith of the Shreveport Times, is accompanied by more than 100 photographs, including separate photo galleries for St. Mary Basilica and Longwood and videos from the Visit Natchez website.

Click here for the link to the USA Today feature on Natchez 

“People have been very excited about it,” said Visit Natchez executive director Jennifer Ogden Combs. “We are certainly very pleased to have something so positive come out. We are delighted about that.”

The story gives readers a glimpse of the history of Natchez, with segments on Longwood Plantation, Natchez Under-the-Hill, Natchez City Cemetery, Dunleith Historic Inn, Stanton Hall, Natchez National Historical Park, Melrose, William Johnson House, Forks of the Road, St. Mary Basilica and more.

Combs said the story was the result of marketing Natchez to travel writers via personal visits and working through Visit Natchez’s public relations firm the Lou Hammond Group.

“We hosted her (Wildsmith) back in September,” Combs said, adding that when a travel writer reaches out, Visit Natchez will provide an itinerary for the writer.

“What I love so much is that Natchez has so much to offer,” Combs said. “We are not just one thing. Yes, we’re historic. Yes, we’ve got great food. Yes we have incredible views of the Mississippi River, and yes we’ve got a music scene that really has taken root in a strong, strong way, music history, and we’ve got an incredibly rich, diverse story with everything from the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians to the slave story to civil rights, the Jewish history.”

Combs said most people, including travel writers are not aware of that diversity until someone either tells them or brings them here so they can experience it themselves.

“They assume it (Natchez) is one thing and then find out it has got much more to it,” Combs said.