Travel South Recap

by Erin Z. Bass Those of you who follow Deep South on Facebook and/or Twitter know that I had a whirlwind tour of Alabama last week while attending Travel South USA in Birmingham. The only regional tourism show focused solely on the southern United States, Travel South invites the "Who's Who" of Southern tourism along with travel writers and media so the two can connect to cover the 187.6 billion dollar industry. Yes, that number is correct, so share it with the next person you encounter who says that tourism is not an important industry for your Southern state. Since Birmingham was the host city this year, Alabama played the part of gracious host along with Communications Director Edith Parten, who invited me on a pre-trip to the state before the start of Travel South. I had a couple different options and was of course drawn to the "Blues & BBQ" tour, but after thinking more about it, the storytelling, quilting, back roads and small towns on the "Small Town Treasures" tour started calling my name. You'll have the chance to read many stories coming out of this tour in the coming months, so I won't go into detail here. I'll just