Time to promote tourism here
By Staff
Jonathan Willis
As I was looking over a report recently issued by the Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel, I started to think about how lucky we are here in this state.
We all know about the great lakes, Dismals Canyons and other beautiful things we have right here in our own county. But, as a state as a whole, I can't imagine any being any better.
We have rolling hills and mountains all across north Alabama and some of the best beaches in the country along the coast.
Scattered in between is some of the most beautiful land anywhere.
And we Alabamians are not the only ones who think so.
We spent last week at the beach and saw cars from all over the country, not just from our neighboring states. My brother-in-law spoke to a couple from Utah who couldn't believe how beautiful the beaches in Alabama are.
We are fortunate here for a number of reasons, though it may not always seem like it when other reports are issued placing us at or near the bottom of some category.
But there are other reports that place us at or near the top.
Golf Digest, for example, and other sporting magazines consistently rank the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail as among the best in the country.
And you could never tell the 200,000 people who fill Talladega Superspeedway twice a year that Alabama is not a great place to be.
The tourism department's most recent report clearly identifies some of the larger counties, such as Baldwin, Mobile and Jefferson as state leaders in visitor destinations.
That will always be the case.
There is nothing Franklin County can do that will ever put us on the coast or high atop some mountain, but there are things we can do to promote what we have.
The Bear Creek Lake system has been identified as one of the cleanest in the state and offers fishermen a paradise. Along those lakes are more than 200 campsites and cabins.
The Dismals Canyons have been documented on national television and widely recognized as a true picture of natural beauty.
So there is plenty here for us to build on.
We, as county residents, need to spend our time and even our money enjoying these places.
Then we can share just how great they are with others.
Tourism can become a big part of the county's future, but we have to appreciate what we have before others will.
