Hundreds of tourism professionals from throughout the state gathered in the Queen City as the annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism was held at the MSU Riley Center. The multi-day conference culminated in an awards luncheon Friday with Gov. Tate Reeves himself delivering the keynote speech.

Tourism and economic development are very similar, Reeves said, in that the goal is to convince someone to visit a place once. In tourism that person may be a regular person from Arkansas and in economic development a CEO of a major industry. Regardless, he said, if you get them to visit once, they usually like what they see.

“There’s a reason we are called the hospitality state, and that reason is because our people are hospitable,” he said. “Once people visit here, they want to come back. The people in Mississippi love sharing their communities with visitors, and they love showcasing the beauty of our state.”

Mississippians excel at turning challenges into opportunities, Reeves said, and he was reminded of that coming off Interstate 20 onto 22nd Avenue. The Sela Ward Revitalization project and Mississippi Children’s Museum-Meridian welcomed visitors to the city, and downtown was full of people walking around and enjoying the day.

I couldn’t help but think, ‘You know, this is what makes it all worth it. This is what working together will do for a community.’” He said. “But those of you who came to Lauderdale County and Meridian six years ago, eight years ago, 10 years ago, know the new restaurants that have opened throughout the downtown, they weren’t here then. The people that are hustling and bustling downtown, they weren’t here.”

The change, Reeves said, was possible because people worked together. State, federal and local officials, Republicans and Democrats, and the community all pitched in to make Meridian’s downtown revitalization a reality.

Mississippi’s tourism industry continues to thrive because of the hardworking people working to share what the state has to offer, Reeves said, and there is no reason to believe that will stop anytime soon.

“Your industry thrives because of you, because of the people that have dedicated your life to making this state better and making this state attractive to outsiders who want to come visit,” he said. “And I gotta tell y’all, I believe that success begets success, and what we’ve seen over the last five years in terms of a steady, growing tourism economy in Mississippi is not going to slow down anytime soon.”