INCREASED non-stop air services to the Southern states are providing operators with more scope to expand their programmes to the region. US Airways’ daily Gatwick-Charlotte flight, introduced last year, now gives North Carolina two gateways from London; Raleigh-Durham is served by British Airways and American Airlines. These supplement Delta Airlines’ established daily service from Gatwick and Manchester to Atlanta in Georgia.
Aside from the South’s rich history, culture and musical heritage, there is increased promotion of a number of resorts stretching from Mississippi’s Gulf Coast to the shores of the Carolinas, as well as the touring attractions of the Great Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains.
The Bluegrass state of Kentucky is also gaining wider interest in tailor-made itineraries, while both Virginia and West Virginia are majoring on soft adventure and Civil War history.
The Virginias
Last year marked the bicentennial of George Washington’s death, and Virginia Tourism Corporation has produced a 16-page brochure with five driving routes taking in the life and times of the US president. They include northern Virginia, Fredericksburg, Winchester, the districts of Williamsburg and Yorktown and Richmond.
Little is known about Virginia’s wine country – there are more than 50 wineries in six regions – so the state has packaged three self-drive tour options with two nights’ accommodation in historic inns from around $200 per person twinshare. Neighbouring West Virginia is promoting outdoor adventure and recreation and is focusing on whitewater rafting, fishing, hiking trails, golf, Civil War heritage and state park touring. Mountain resort developer Intrawest Corporation has spent $70m on improvements at Snowshoe Mountain Resort in Pocahontas County. These include the opening of Rimfire Lodge resort, new snowshoe and snowmobiling trails, Nordic ski trails and a Black Diamond slope. Snowshoe is the largest winter resort in the southeast with 56 slopes and trails.
Mississippi
The state’s Gulf Coast resort of Biloxi is fast becoming known as a new gambling and entertainment Mecca that could eventually rival New Jersey’s Atlantic City further up the eastern seaboard. With many new casino resorts springing up along the 26-mile sandy coastline, the state’s gaming business now ranks third in the US with $2bn in revenue, after New Jersey ($4bn) and Nevada ($8bn). Mississippi’s gaming resorts also own many of the new golf courses coming on line.
These courses include the Arnold Palmer Golf Academy and course in Bay St Louis and Grand Casino’s Grand Southern Golf Course in Tunica. Despite Elvis Presley’s connections with Memphis in Tennessee, his home town is Tupelo in Mississippi and a museum opposite his birthplace is now open to visitors.
With the theme ‘Times and Things Remembered’, it includes hundreds of articles and personal mementos, such as motorcycle boots and a jumpsuit from Elvis’ Las Vegas acts.
The state’s southern hospitality can be sampled by staying at some of the 120 period properties now offering bed and breakfast. These range from restored pre-Civil War plantation homes to Victorian mansions.
A room for two at the Ravennaside plantation house in the historic town of Natchez by the Mississippi River costs from £53 per night. Another, called Belle of the Bends, in Vicksburg, starts at £60.
Kentucky
The state may be famous mostly for its horse-breeding and the coveted Kentucky Derby but the biggest new attraction is the huge Kentucky History Centre in Frankfort. On show are exhibits that chronicle America’s westward expansion, as well as those loaned from leading national museums.
The state is also promoting new itineraries that include historical routes along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, Bluegrass horse country, historic Lexington, mountain retreats and the growing attractions of Louisville, where a $60m waterfront development has been completed.
A new themed itinerary for 2000 is Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail, with visits to distilleries such as John Bean, Labrot and Graham, Buffalo Trace, Maker’s Mark, Heaven Hill, Four Roses and Austin Nichols.
Bourbon whiskey was first processed in Georgetown, Kentucky, in 1789.
Aside from the Kentucky Derby on May 6, the state is hosting this year’s PGA Golf Championships at Louisville, from August 14-20, as well as top national motor racing events when the Kentucky Speedway complex opens in Sparta in June.
The $152m facility will have a 1.5 mile track with 14-degree banking turns and will stage series such as NASCAR and the Indy Racing League.
Kentucky
The state may be famous mostly for its horse-breeding and the coveted Kentucky Derby but the biggest new attraction is the huge Kentucky History Centre in Frankfort. On show are exhibits that chronicle America’s westward expansion, as well as those loaned from leading national museums.
The state is also promoting new itineraries that include historical routes along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, Bluegrass horse country, historic Lexington, mountain retreats and the growing attractions of Louisville, where a $60m waterfront development has been completed.
A new themed itinerary for 2000 is Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail, with visits to distilleries such as John Bean, Labrot and Graham, Buffalo Trace, Maker’s Mark, Heaven Hill, Four Roses and Austin Nichols.
Bourbon whiskey was first processed in Georgetown, Kentucky, in 1789.
Aside from the Kentucky Derby on May 6, the state is hosting this year’s PGA Golf Championships at Louisville, from August 14-20, as well as top national motor racing events when the Kentucky Speedway complex opens in Sparta in June.
The $152m facility will have a 1.5 mile track with 14-degree banking turns and will stage series such as NASCAR and the Indy Racing League.
The Carolinas
South Carolina has introduced a Cotton Heritage Trail that links a number of communities, as well as a new brochure on the state’s 240-acre National Heritage Corridor from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the historic port of Charleston.
North and South Carolina are also looking at ways of increasing joint promotion of two-centre golfing holidays as they have some of the finest courses in the US.
New attractions for North Carolina include the Museum of Craft and Design, the Old American Tobacco Trail and Cape Fear Botanical Gardens. A brochure on the Heritage Gardens of North Carolina has also been unveiled, detailing 54 gardens and horticultural displays throughout the state. They include the Biltmore Estate and the North Carolina Arboretum, both at Asheville, and Old Salem and Reynolda Gardens of Wake Forest University. A 213-room hotel costing $31m is to open on the Biltmore Estate next year, offering spectacular mountain views. Called the Inn at Biltmore, it will feature several restaurants, library, lobby bar, swimming pool and fitness centre, as well as a boardroom, banquet rooms, meeting rooms and suites.
The Biltmore Estate is the largest privately owned home in the US and was built in 1895 as the country retreat of George Vanderbilt. It is now one of the state’s most popular attractions, drawing 850,000 visitors each year.
Alabama/Georgia
Alabama is promoting flydrive and hiking itineraries featuring old Southern communities and Georgia’s Blue and Gray Civil War Trail.
New attractions include an Earlyworks hands-on history centre in Alabama, the Gulf Coast Exploreum Museum of Science in Mobile, and an exhibition centre at Montgomery’s Union Station commemorating the life of music legend Hank Williams. Georgia bases its latest tourism campaign on four areas of the state – Atlanta, the mountains, the coast and the historic South.
Other top new attractions include the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in Macon and the Georgia Hall of Fame in Augusta’s Riverwalk area.