By Becky Gillette

Delta Business Journal

Evidently you can “Bank on the Blues” even during a recession. While overall tourism spending in Mississippi was down seven percent in fiscal 2009, visitor spending in Sunflower County-home to the one of the state’s biggest blues attractions, the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center-was up 12.5 percent to $12.43 million.

According to Tom E. Van Hyning, research program manager for the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) Tourism Division, the one “shining star” in 2009 was Sunflower County, based on increased travel and tourism expenditures by visitors for the 12 months ending June 30, 2009.

“The B.B. King Museum and Interpretive Center, Indianola-year one-is a major reason,” Hyning says.

Lora Bingham, membership and development coordinator at the museum, says this year is looking even better. 

“In the past couple of months, we’ve seen a big increase. We’ve had a really good spring and summer so far,” Bingham says. “With the blues festival season kicking off in April, we have seen an increase in visitors here at B.B. King (museum), and blues festivals have likely increased spending over the Delta as a whole.”

Guy Malvezzi, co-owner of The Shack Up Inn, says from their experience operating a 22-room hotel “in the middle of nowhere but close enough to Clarksdale where it does matter,” banking on the blues is the best bet the Delta has.

“It has probably done way more for Clarksdale than the rest of the Delta,” Malvezzi says. “But from here forward, in my opinion, I think it is going to be beneficial to all of the Mississippi Delta. We are getting more and more people who come here, and use this as their home base in order to make day trips to Greenwood, Leland, Oxford, Greenville and Indianola. They will stay for five days or so. Visitors are absolutely enthralled with something we have taken for granted all these years.”

Blues tourism is no flash in the pan. The Shack Up Inn alone had 10,000 guests this past year, 25 percent foreign.

The Delta Blues Museum is more evidence of the staying power of blues tourism. Museum Director Shelley Ritter reports a steady increase in interest in the museum during the 31 years it has been open. “The downtown has seen a lot of new businesses come in,” Ritter says. “We’ve seen the opening of Ground Zero, Rust Restaurant, Stone Pony and the Dutch Oven. I think blues music development has come about organically, and it needs to be nurtured that same way, and not forced. It is our cultural heritage.”

Bill Luckett and Morgan Freeman jump-started Clarksdale in becoming a center for blues music when they opened Ground Zero Blues Club in 2001, later anchoring the other end of Delta Avenue with Madidi restaurant.

“People are coming in large numbers, and they are coming from all over the world, especially England and France,” Luckett says. “A lot of people are coming not just to our club, but to the entire Delta as a destination. They are making multiple stops.”
Les Shanks, manager of Tallahatchie Flats in Greenwood, has seen a huge surge of interest in the past year.

“We have a lot of European visitors,” Shanks says. “The past two months are the best two months we have ever had. We are in an economic downturn, obviously. But we have been able to draw from all over the world.”

Shanks says the advertising done by the state is starting to pay off.

“It is going to be a growth industry for the state,” he says. “No doubt about it.”
Steve Lavere, music historian in Greenwood, believes that blues tourism, along with other types of cultural tourism, will save the Delta.

“The attraction is primarily from people outside the region including Europe, Japan and Australia. It does have an impact on the culture and the financial stability of the Delta,” he says. “If it is done right-and I think there are a number of people working on doing it right like the B.B. King Museum-it can attract a great number of people from other areas and it will help the overall economy of the Delta.”

Roger Stolle says since he opened Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art in 2001, he has seen a slow, but steady interest in blues tourism. “Blues tourism can absolutely help the Delta,” Stolle says. “While no one thing is a surefire cure for everything that ails a region, blues tourism has a lot more to offer Mississippi Deltans than most folks think. Clarksdale has probably tripled or quadrupled its blues tourism footprint in the past eight years with more tourism-related museums, music stores and blues clubs than ever before.”

“Visitors leave a trail that is peppered with dollars”, says Allan Hammons, president of Hammons & Associates Inc., whose ad agency is designing and installing the Mississippi Blues Trail.

“There is a lot of culture and heritage throughout Mississippi that is of great interest to people of this country and around the world,” Hammons says. “It stands to reason that if we provide opportunities and reasons to visit Mississippi, it is a great opportunity for us.”

With more than 100 markers around the state, the Mississippi Blues Trail serves as a mechanism to attract visitors to explore the other treasures that Delta communities have to offer. 

“Because Mississippi is the ‘Birthplace of America’s Music,’ MDA is uniquely positioned to drive initiatives that build on our musical heritage,” says MDA Tourism Director Mary Beth Wilkerson.

Live music calendars for blues tourists can be found at www.msbluestrail.org and www.cathead.biz. DBJ