Mississippi Senate will soon create new tourism department for the state

Thursday, March 12, 2020

At present, Mississippi Tourism department has been a part of the Mississippi Development Authority included with the Film industry, as well.  SB 2838 authored by Sen. John Polk could take away tourism from MDA and make it a separate entity. On Tuesday, the bill was passed in the Mississippi Senate.

Temporarily, Tourism sits under the Mississippi Development Authority as “Visit Mississippi” and works as a guide to tourism all over the State of Mississippi. It is managed by Director Craig Ray.

SB 2838, titled the “Mississippi Tourism Reorganization Act,” would efficiently develop the Mississippi Department of Tourism and a state board to manage it. The board would nominate an Executive Director in which authorization of the duties of a state agency would be entrusted.

Then the department would start setting up grant programs, looking after duties, and sell advertising and other promotional material for state tourism.

“There is no need to separate tourism and incur the expense that comes with creating a new agency at this time,” a spokesperson for MDA said.  “The Tourism Promotion Act, passed last year, provides much of the financial support needed to strengthen Mississippi’s efforts to draw more visitors to see our beautiful state.”

By definition under the bill the new department “shall be responsible for the promotion, development, and support services for the tourism industry within the state.”

Now, all MDA employees associated with Tourism as well as equipment and inventory would be distributed to the new Tourism Division coming into effect from July 1, 2020.

With the Executive Director, a board comprising of seven members would be constituted therein. They will be four members appointed by the Governor, one from each Supreme Court district and one from the state at large, and three appointed by the Lt. Governor from the state. Initial terms would be for two years with terms of five years thereafter.

The advertising of the department would continue to be financed by a diverted portion of sales tax revenue collected from restaurants and hotels.

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