After taking a break from traveling last summer, Susan Newell and her family are happy to be tourists once more.

Many attractions were closed or restricted last summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the family decided to stay at home in Pontotoc, Miss. 

But this summer, they’ve visited several destinations, including Mississippi Children’s Museum-Meridian in mid-July. Newell and her husband played with their three young boys in the museum’s ambulance and in other exhibits.

The kids approved of the trip. 

“They like it, which is why they’re just running around right now,” Newell said. “They’re not sitting still.”

Tourism in Meridian has picked up in recent months because many people have gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 and because case numbers have remained low, until recently. Hotel occupancy numbers, for example, are substantially higher than they were in the winter, according to industry reports provided by the Lauderdale County Tourism Bureau.

The local uptick in tourism is also part of a national trend. AAA reports that a similar number of people are traveling as in pre-pandemic year 2019, said AAA spokesperson Don Redman.

More travelers are stopping in Meridian

One way to measure the amount of tourism and travel in Lauderdale County is to look at the hotel occupancy rate, which is the percentage of hotel rooms in the county that are occupied.

The county’s monthly hotel occupancy rate increased this spring after low winter numbers, according to reports provided by the tourism bureau. People wanted to get out and travel after not being able to for a while, said Dede Mogollon, the tourism bureau’s executive director.

“What’s really interesting to us is right now, over the last couple of months, we’ve really been outpacing our numbers from 2019,” Mogollon said.

For each month from February to June, the hotel occupancy rate in Lauderdale County was higher than the same month in 2019, according to industry reports. For example, the hotel occupancy rate was 73% this June and 70% in June 2019. The hotel occupancy rate for July hasn’t been released yet.

This region is also doing well when compared to other areas of the state. In both May and June, East Central Mississippi’s hotel occupancy rate was the second highest rate of Mississippi’s regions, according to industry reports provided by the tourism bureau. Only the Biloxi and Gulfport area had a higher hotel occupancy rate during those months.

Mogollon said the Meridian area’s success is partly due to the tourism bureau’s marketing efforts. The bureau received COVID-19 relief funding last year, which it used to market the city’s attractions. 

“What we did with our marketing funds in the fall was compelling and encouraged people to come,” she said.

Mogollon said Meridian’s proximity to the interstate is also a reason why Lauderdale County is seeing such high hotel occupancy numbers.

“That’s an advantage we have over the other regions,” she said. “So we not only get vacationers — we get stopovers. And we have a strong business travel base that has come back.”

The Fairfield Inn & Suites in Meridian is seeing more walk-in visitors this year than last year, said Jeremy Campbell, the area director of sales for the inn and the Threefoot Hotel.

“There are days that we’ll have as many as 20 walk-in guests who don’t have prior reservations — they’re just coming in off the street — so that is a huge pick-up from what we have seen in the past,” he said of Fairfield Inn & Suites.

Meridian Regional Airport has seen an increase in flyers in recent months, according to Meridian Airport Authority President Tom Williams.

In January, only 504 passengers departed from Meridian Regional Airport, compared to 1,088 in January 2019, according to data that Williams provided. The airport started to see more passengers in the spring, as more people started to travel again and as spring break approached. 

In June, 1,238 passengers departed from Meridian Regional Airport, compared to 1,799 in June 2019.

“We have begun to come back, but we’re not at the 2019 levels yet,” Williams said.

What it’s like for people to travel this summer

On an afternoon in mid-July, Steve and Tracy Dekany took a pit stop at the Mississippi Welcome Center in Toomsuba. They were on their way to Gulfport to eat crab legs.

The Tennessee couple had enjoyed all-you-can-eat crab legs there a few years ago, and  wanted to try the delicacy again.

“I watched him eat more crab legs than I’ve ever seen anybody eat in my life,” Tracy Dekany said, referring to their first trip to the Coast. 

Steve Dekany was looking forward to seeing people enjoying themselves, which was not as common a sight earlier in the pandemic, when people often looked worried and apprehensive in public, he said.

“Part of travel enjoyment for me is seeing everybody else enjoying traveling,” he said. “So I like to be around other travelers and tourists.”

West Virginia couple Jennifer and Daniel Ward also stopped at the Mississippi Welcome Center, on their way to Thibodaux, Louisiana. They were taking their son, Gavin, to a football camp, but they also planned to visit New Orleans during their trip.

Jennifer Ward said she was looking forward to the “culture and music and food” in Louisiana, and her husband said he was looking forward to sightseeing.

Kristy Carey, a resident of Melville, Louisiana, recently traveled with her great-nieces to her mother’s home in Butler, Alabama. While in Butler, they visited the Mississippi Children’s Museum-Meridian and did other activities.

“It’s been fun,” she said during the trip. “It’s been nice. We’ve have some good times. We plan on going to the beach tomorrow.”

Carey said she feels a bit more comfortable in public now than she did earlier in the pandemic.

Tourism bureau looks to the future

Last August, the Lauderdale County Tourism Bureau received funding from the CARES Act, which it used to market Meridian to new areas. The bureau paid for digital ads in Atlanta, Dallas, Memphis and other cities where it hadn’t previously advertised.

The tourism bureau has spent all of the money it received from the CARES Act, but Mogollon is hoping that the bureau will receive funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which President Joe Biden signed into law this spring.

The bill gave COVID-19 relief funding to the state of Mississippi, and Mogollon said the tourism industry is lobbying the Mississippi Legislature to dedicate some of the funding to tourism efforts.

“We need that second influx of funds to put us back on the map as a state,” Mogollon said.

If the bureau receives that funding, it would use the money to continue its marketing efforts.

Mogollon also hopes the opening of two new attractions downtown will draw people to the Queen City. 

“With the Threefoot Hotel opening and Threefoot Brewery, we now have a destination that people can come, park their car and never move for a weekend,” she said. “There’s so much to do.”