Page 49 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2016

• 5.8 million visitors came to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2015, and they spent $1.88 billion while they were here.
• Nearly 25 percent of the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s workforce
is the 29,800 leisure and hospitality employees, making the hospitality industry the largest private sector employer on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
“It’s wonderful that so many restaurants have opened that are very local and Mississippi centric,” Arang said. “One of the top three reasons people travel is dining and we have great culinary opportunities here.”
Good seafood is a natural here, she points out, with the Mississippi Sound being the breeding ground for 90 percent of seafood species.
The growth of nature-based tourism and outdoor activities are also fueling the area’s rebounding tourism industry. “We really have something for everyone now,” Arang said, “in addition to charter boats and fishing and 19 golf courses.”
The Pascagoula River Audubon Center that opened last October in Moss Point is a shining example of nature-based tourism. Besides the interpretive center, there are walking paths, kayaks and scenic boat tours. “It’s the last of its kind, a large river with no dams or controls on it at all,” said Dr. Mark LaSalle, the center’s executive director in a recent interview with USA Today. “It’s very popular with birders, and the facility is a manageable 10 acres, but the Nature Conservancy, Audubon and others have been buying and protecting land for years. Almost 50,000 acres are now in state, federal or non-profit conservation or protection status.”
Some attractions ravaged by Hurricane Katrina have come
back bigger and better, such as the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi. The museum is now housed in a new three- story $8 million building. It continues to operate its beautiful Biloxi schooners, the Mike Sekul and the Glenn L. Swetman — 68- foot, two-masted sailboats once used widely for oystering, and now offering charters, scenic public cruises and sunset sails.
Another top Biloxi cultural attraction is Beauvoir, the 52-acre estate of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, that was restored after being almost demolished by Katrina. The new Presidential Library joins the antebellum mansion, nature trails and gardens.
Other upgrades include Stennis Space Center’s $44 million Infinity Science Center that opened four years ago. The Infinity has tons of interactive exhibits for all ages, including a life-size walk-through model of the International Space Station’s Destiny module, one of the huge F-1 engines that sent men to the moon, and a seven-mile scenic nature trail. Retired astronaut and Biloxi native Fred Haise’s personal space gear is also displayed here.
Arang says the voids in the Gulf Coast tourism product are transportation, a convention center hotel and more signage. “We are working with Coast Transit Authority to expand transportation, especially for groups coming to the convention center,” she said. “We need a convention center hotel because a large segment of meetings won’t consider coming here because there’s no hotel. Also, we could use more signage and branding; we hope to have more.”
TOURISM ALONG THE GULF COAST is amazingly healthy. With world-class gaming and dining, family- oriented attractions, beautiful beaches and so much more, visitors have plenty to come back for.
Visit Mississippi Gulf Coast
228.896.6699 www.visitmississippigulfcoast.org
FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net
August 2016 • SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living 49