NATCHEZ, Miss. – The mayor and aldermen received a report Tuesday showing tourism is rebounding from the COVID-induced lulls of 2020 and 2021.
“As we enter the 2023 fiscal year, with the effects of the pandemic slowly fading away, we are poised to resurge,” Visit Natchez executive director Devin Heath stated in his report. “In 2021, Natchez tourism travel expenditures rebounded with an increase of 27.6 percent over 2020. Occupancies and visitation continued to grow in 2022. More events are occurring, and visitors are seeking opportunities to travel once again.”
Tourism-related revenues for Natchez in 2022 is on track to be the highest since 2018, Heath said. While statistics for the current year aren’t completed, revenues in 2021 picked up from the slump in 2020, when the pandemic first hit.
Heath expressed optimism tourist-related sales in the city this year will exceed the $1.56 million in tax revenues generated for Natchez by hotel and restaurant businesses in 2021 and be on par with the $1.67 million spun in 2019. The special tourism taxes produce money used to promote Natchez and attract visitors to the city.
Natchez visitors spent $97.6 million in the city last year, down from pre-COVID expenditures of $108.7 million in 2019, according to numbers compiled by Visit Natchez, the city’s tourism and convention promotion agency. Heath said to expect more in 2022 and beyond.
“We will continue to market to the visitors we have, utilizing the historic homes and architecture as our foundation. We will add new initiatives to better tell the story of Natchez and the variety of attractions to gain new visitors to our city,” he said.
Health noted his agency is working on a new “brand” for Natchez and focusing more on “niche markets,” such as visitors interested in Black history, architecture, music and the Mississippi River.
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An Oregon-based sculptor has been selected to design the monument being planned to honor Black Union soldiers stationed in Natchez during the Civil War. Thomas Jay Warren is a Mississippi native with a large portfolio of sculpted art that includes commissioned statues honoring civil rights leader Medgar Evers in Jackson, jazz saxophonist John Coltrane in North Carolina and Vietnam veterans in New Jersey.
The mayor and aldermen reviewed examples of Warren’s work presented Tuesday by a city-appointed committee planning the historical shrine to be located on the north end of Broadway Street.
Mayor Dan Gibson last year initiated efforts to honor more than 3,000 Black soldiers who served in Natchez when it was occupied by the Union army beginning in 1863.
With Warren selected as the monument’s sculptor, more work remains in designing, funding and building it. Private funds are being sought for this.
People wanting to contribute can go to the organizing group’s website to send money and get more information: www.natchezusctmonument.com
The Natchez Preservation Commission will review the monument’s design when its plans are drawn up for approval. It’s also subject to being acceptable to the state Department of Archives & History.
The monument site is to be on the large lawn at Broadway and Madison streets in the city’s bluff area. The location stands out because of its historical significance and its visual prominence overlooking the Mississippi River, according to a report presented by the Natchez U.S. Colored Troops Monument Committee.
Historical records show Black Union soldiers drilled there with White soldiers when they occupied Natchez during and after the Civil Year.
The site is on the edge of what then was Fort McPherson, the Union earthen fortification that encompassed a large section of north Natchez.
Newly freed slaves in the Natchez area were enlisted into the Union army. Their work included demolishing the Natchez Forks of the Road slave market and building Fort McPherson, according to historical accounts. While few of the 3,000 or so Black soldiers stationed in Natchez were involved in Civil War combat, about 800 died from disease.
Warren’s sculptures can be seen on his website: warrensculpture.com
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