Business Is Booming

Episode 12-John Dersham.mp3
Narrator: [00:00:01] Business is booming from the small mom and pops to the big industries. Our local businesses drive our economy and provide the products, services and jobs we depend on. Our host Jennifer McCurdy, brings us these stories as she visits with the business owners and leaders of Fort Payne and DeKalb County, Alabama. And now here's Jennifer.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:00:25] Hello. Our business is booming. Listeners, thanks for joining us today. I have a very special guest, John Dersham, with the DeKalb County Tourism Association. Thank you, John, for joining us.

John Dersham: [00:00:37] Thank you, Jennifer. It's a pleasure to be here.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:00:40] I'm glad to have you on our podcast, Business is booming.

John Dersham: [00:00:42] I am excited to be here because business is booming. I know.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:00:45] It really is. And I have just recently had so many conversations with people saying, hey, I'm listening to the podcast and that is so encouraging.

John Dersham: [00:00:54] It is because it's very informative and people can find out a lot about our community that way. And now maybe even tourism.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:01:01] Well, I was about to say I've got John Dersham with DeKalb County Tourism with me today on our podcast, and he's been at it 14 years now.

John Dersham: [00:01:10] 15 years.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:01:11] 15 years.

John Dersham: [00:01:12] Just celebrated my 15th anniversary.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:01:14] Well, happy anniversary.

[00:01:16] Yeah, Thank you. Appreciate it.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:01:18] Well, we thought having tourism speak a little bit about what you all can do as far as or what you do. Tourism in any community, really, for as an economic driver in the community, I think a lot of that gets overlooked. Everybody thinks tourism is fun and and it is. I mean, but the importance of bringing people to your area to spend money in your area is so important. So talk to us a little bit about the definition of tourism and its entirety.

John Dersham: [00:01:46] So a tourist is somebody that earns their money other than the place they're visiting and where they're visiting, they're going to spend it. So, for example, our community thrives on the people that live here, right? That's right. Well, so to get outside income income that actually is not earned in DeKalb County. So for us, it's DeKalb County, the whole county. They have to live outside this economy and they bring their money here when they come to visit and they get lodging, they eat, they buy gas, they go to attractions, they shop because everybody loves to come downtown Fort Payne and shop all the neat little gift stores and so.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:02:28] Many other communities are having and thing thriving to Fyffe, Henagar.

John Dersham: [00:02:33] They are.

John Dersham: [00:02:33] And most of them have a bunch of shops that are unique for the community. A lot of them have antique stores which are still extremely popular everywhere. They have second hand this second hand and that. Like my granddaughters, they like to go to second hand shops, clothes and things like that.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:02:49] Lots of jewels found there. Little nuggets of clothing.

John Dersham: [00:02:53] Surprise. Yeah. So our visitors are critical to DeKalb because it's really the largest income stream other than agriculture. So agriculture statewide is the largest industry. We're number two statewide, but in DeKalb County it's especially true because people opt on their own as a leisure tourist to come here. So let's say Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery Mobile, a biggest portion of their tourism dollars are actually meetings and conventions, sports events, all counts, but business travelers and in the case of Huntsville, you know, government travel. In DeKalb County, people are choosing to come here. So we're second only to the beach, Orange Beach and Gulf Shores in the state of Alabama for the percentage of people that come to our destination strictly as a leisure traveler. That means they're [00:03:47] getting a [00:03:48] hotel. They're renting one of our for over 400 now, short term rentals cabins or just personal property owners that are renting a room, things like that, or camping. And they're doing things that stimulate the rest of the economy and tourism. So once they come and actually pay lodging tax. So everywhere you go, if you rent short term, you have to pay lodging tax and it's just included in your bill. You go to the hotel, you probably don't even notice it until you check out and you'll see that there's a column down there.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:04:20] It's pretty significant.

John Dersham: [00:04:21] It is. It is significant. Like in Birmingham, it's 18%. So you really notice it. But what happens is those dollars go to the state revenue office and the state Revenue office has a guy named Dr. David Duravit, works for Auburn University, who's a tourism economist. He does the Southern six states and he does it by county. And what he does is he creates a formula based on the cost of living in each county. So all 67 counties of Alabama and Georgia and North Carolina, all of them. And he knows exactly what the visitor will spend once they buy hotel rooms. So the average cost of a hotel or a cabin in DeKalb County, he figures that and then he calculates a family of four for each night what they'll do and proven things that they'll do because they track the receipts from these people that have zip codes and things like that. They'll buy gas, they'll go to restaurants. They'll do retail shopping. They'll pay for attractions, those that charge for attractions. And basically they're distributing in DeKalb County. Now, last year, more than $600 per day on their visit per day. That's family of four. So that takes the lodging and all the other things that they're known to do during that visit. So if we get them two days, $1,200, if we get them three days, $1,800 automatically. So what we're trying to do is make our invitation to all of our visitors to stay longer. We're all we've always been a weekend destination. It's just that way.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:06:03] And let me ask that, speaking of staying longer in the weekend destination, when is our prime season for tourists?

John Dersham: [00:06:10] Okay. June is our largest month. Okay.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:06:12] And do you think that some has a little bit to do with the camps in Mentone?

John Dersham: [00:06:17] It does, because what happens is the parents bring the kids to the event. They pick him up. Sometimes they come in. If it's a two week event, they come in between and they'll stay. So they're paying lodging. So it's always a big deal for when the camps are on. Also, June has been fan appreciation weekend month.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:06:40] And this year.

John Dersham: [00:06:40] That changes tune a little bit with June Jam. But with June Jam, they're also doing the other things. So, you know, the fan club members got first dibs on the tickets and the same people that are coming to fan appreciation every week — by the way, we sell out all lodging, each fan appreciation appreciation weekend every time. So this time not only will we sell it out, we're going to have a shortage of rooms because we'll have a larger population overall.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:07:08] Which will trickle into our other outlying counties that border us.

John Dersham: [00:07:13] It will. And you know, most of the other areas in the county, you know, Collinsville has a couple of hotels and Rainsville has one. And then there's believe it or not, there's rental cabins all throughout the county. There's a number of them on Sand Mountain, and there's some near Buck's pocket and there's some near High Falls Park. So there's plenty of places to, you know, get lodging in DeKalb County. So with 10,000 tickets sold. And then the people that typically are coming to the fan appreciation weekend, they'll be at the concert, too. So let's say 10,000 people are in town that I don't know the number that that would be local and will not need lodging.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:07:56] Even if it were 5000 that weren't local. Oh, it's I mean, that is a huge influx of money coming back into our community. And even local people will be in town spending money while they're here.

John Dersham: [00:08:07] They do. And what happens is that the other piece of the tourism formula is when we travel... I'm this way, to my wife and I, when we travel, we have more money to spend than we do when we live at home. When we're at home, we don't spend.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:08:22] You're just home. Do you.

John Dersham: [00:08:24] Save up? You do. So we like to collect artistic pieces of stuff. And when we travel, that's a time that we say, Let's see what the art galleries are around Gatlinburg or Yellowstone, and, you know, let's save up money so we can buy one good piece of art or something like that. Plus, you're also going to pay a little bit more for lodging. So we get the same thing here. So when people come here, they come equipped with more money. That's why places like our, you know, makers, market.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:08:56] Boomtown Makers Market.

John Dersham: [00:08:57] Makers market and in in in Mentone, Arts and cultural center you know people there's two and $3,000 pieces in there or more and that's when they sell them they sell them to visitors.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:09:10] And if you're not familiar with Boomtown Makers market in downtown Fort Payne, you have to go in there. I mean, it's.

John Dersham: [00:09:18] One it's just as neat a store as you could have anywhere on the planet.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:09:21] Oh, I know. And that's the type of stores when I go places I seek out. I always go to downtown to there. And I love little downtowns like Fort Payne.

John Dersham: [00:09:29] Me too.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:09:29] And I always try to find a store that carries unique items to their community. And that's what artists, local artists and makers in the community. I love it.

John Dersham: [00:09:41] And it's got the best layout and design and it just feels comfortable in there. You go in there and you want to stay a long time.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:09:48] And the people who work there usually have. They have products in there or their their craftsmanship items. I don't know. Is that how Yeah. Art. And so they're passionate about not only their work but other makers work and they can talk about it and give you the history and it's just.

John Dersham: [00:10:04] And a tourism town like this is a lot more likely to be really successful with that because the tourists, like we said, do come equipped to really have a good time in a new location buying art and crafts and wood and beautiful woodworking.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:10:21] So I'm going back to the June jam because. Because I'm a squirrel.

John Dersham: [00:10:26] Right? There you go.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:10:27] Bringing it back around, How do you feel like it will truly impact our economy locally?

John Dersham: [00:10:35] It will impact even more than fan appreciation weekend simply because the total numbers larger. So what happens is because it's a Thursday through Sunday event somewhere, because, you know, Randy is doing his thing and Teddy's doing his thing and Saturday's the big event. And because of that, people are in town three, four days. And some people, you know, they like coming so much, we know several people that used to come in the visitor center all the time. They would come here first just to find out what's going on, what was a matter of fact. They'd come in and they'd say, I got to know him pretty good. They'd say, John, have you talked to Randy this year? I said, Yeah, I've talked to him a couple of. Exactly what did he say?

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:11:26] Waiting, anticipating the return of the June Jam or just just to know what he was talking about.

John Dersham: [00:11:32] They want to know somebody that, you know, maybe talks to them once or twice a year. Well, do you have to say, you know, so it's amazing the loyalty and it's well-deserved. I mean, it's a wonderful.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:11:43] Well, they put us on the map.

John Dersham: [00:11:44] They're going to you have a you have a multiple day event like this. So people aren't just coming and going. They're going to spend the time here and they're going to spend a lot of money. So it's major to the economy of the whole area.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:11:56] Well, I'm hoping fingers crossed that this is just the start of many more June Jams to come. And hopefully we can it'll continue to grow and we can find space for it for a larger venue. I know that the VFW fairgrounds is a great starting point, I feel like.

John Dersham: [00:12:14] Oh, it is, yeah. And it was the natural one from a square footage standpoint that was usable. So I think that it's just very exciting.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:12:23] It's been one of our people.

John Dersham: [00:12:24] Are so glad to hear, Oh my gosh. I mean, it.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:12:26] Just we that's been our number one ask question since since I've been at the chamber. Do you think the June Jam will come back? What's the chances of that happening? And so when they announced it at the Chamber Awards banquet, we're still receiving we still receive calls about, you know, what can we want to be a vendor or before the tickets went on sale, when are the tickets are going? When are they going on sale? And then until now, who's going to be in the lineup.

John Dersham: [00:12:54] So and you know, the Times-journal released that today.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:12:58] I saw that. That's so exciting. They said if first round, maybe there's another round of artists coming out perhaps.

John Dersham: [00:13:06] Well, so far we've got Jamey Johnson, Jake Owen, the Oak Ridge Boys, another country Music Hall of Fame group. The frontman Richie McDonald, formerly of Lone Star. Tim Rushlow, formerly of Little Texas, Larry Stewart of Restless Heart. Exile and exile. Mark Wills. Neal McCoy. Daly and Vinson. Home Free. The Malpass Brothers. D.j. Silver and special appearance by Randy Travis. That's a lot of people.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:13:37] That is a lot of people.

John Dersham: [00:13:38] Quite an impressive lineup, actually.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:13:40] And they do that. I enjoyed the singer songwriter festival last year. That was great. That was just it's I love those venues though, when it's just an artist with their guitar talking about their songs and with people who they write with and sing with, kind of given the background story of songs. I love that, especially.

John Dersham: [00:13:59] With a singer songwriter. For them just to sit and play a guitar and sing their songs sometime, that's that's better than the album or the CD itself.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:14:07] It's therapy for them. Yes, exactly. And for us, I mean, it's going to be exciting.

John Dersham: [00:14:12] And this is an impressive list. Yes, it is. I mean, that's a lot of people. So you're going to be entertained all day long.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:14:19] Yes, well into the night, right.

John Dersham: [00:14:21] From 1 to 10 in the evening. So that's pretty good number of hours.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:14:25] So we can we're going to have to really keep an eye out on people and see if all us old fogies can stay awake. Yeah. You know, I was just a young pup when the June Jam when I attended my final June Jam. And, you know, it's a it's a long day, but it'll be so fun. So much fun. I cannot tell you how many people continuously email us. We're coming. We've already booked our rooms. We're ready.

John Dersham: [00:14:52] As quickly as the tickets sold it would tell you that, you know, the opportunity for it to expand is even greater. So if we get a venue that can, you know, can accommodate twice that many people, I'm thinking it would probably fill up.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:15:07] That'd be excellent.

John Dersham: [00:15:08] Now we'll lose lodging out of the deal because people will be inching towards Etowah and Cherokee County and our place.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:15:14] But our lodging will be full and then maybe we can justify additional lodging.

John Dersham: [00:15:18] Well, this year we're real borderline on Avid Candlewood Suites, which opens here. It may not be open by June, but we're going to be close. So. But that'll be a good that's 99 rooms. So that'll be a good addition for us.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:15:33] When people. Exciting. Okay. I want to talk about boom days too as well. We're already seeing people interested in boom days. Our lineup for boom days, which is the third weekend in September. Every year, also is a big.

John Dersham: [00:15:49] It's a big tourism event. Oh, yes. A lot bigger than people realize. And it's not the only event. Colorfest was always that way in Mentone and Rhododendron Festival a little bit, but Colorfest, we've got a we get so many people in the fall that are coming from points further south. So in the fall, most of our business is coming from southern Alabama, Montgomery and South Birmingham and south southern Mississippi, southern Georgia and the panhandle of Florida and Louisiana especially. So because we're the first really good deciduous fall color everything, pine trees south. So that's true. They get the color and they come here and, you know, something like boom days, we consider that really our first major fall event because it's late enough in September that school's been on long enough that families are wanting to get out, have a good time. They're getting that itch for cooler weather. So about 15% of the population of boom days is typically overnight business. So they're coming in and we do have those that are traveling from Huntsville and Birmingham that'll go back the same day. But we it's it's a great event. It really does help fill our lodging. And again, those people are likely to spend more money than somebody just strolling through and goes home at night.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:17:16] And that's the third weekend every year in September. And we've got we kick it off on Friday night and we'll have a band called Chasing Pain to start us off. And then a local band that's a tribute band. And they're going to do a tribute for Bob Seger tribute band this year. That's going to be fun. And then Saturday, John, why don't you tell us who you will be?

John Dersham: [00:17:37] Well, Saturday we got a really big night. Big night. We got Sammy Kershaw, Aaron Tippin and Collin Ray.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:17:44] And opening for them is the...

John Dersham: [00:17:47] Boys In the Band, Alabama tribute band. And of course, Chasing Pain was out on Friday night or is that Saturday night Friday night and the Bob Seger tribute.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:17:56] And that's Friday night, too. Yes.

John Dersham: [00:17:58] So, I mean, those are some big names. And it's going to be. And these guys are major hits. Yeah.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:18:04] No, I mean, Major, we've again, we're hearing positive things about our lineup for Boom Days, too. And that's we have other things during the day on Saturday. We have vendors set up. We have craftsmen in the park and.

John Dersham: [00:18:18] Things for kids to do.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:18:19] Lots of kids activities. And so it's a really great family fun kind of day for our community.

John Dersham: [00:18:26] Keeps you busy all day long. Come early, stay late.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:18:28] Yes, it's fun.

John Dersham: [00:18:30] And basically the concerts end about 10-10:30, maybe sometimes just a little bit later by the time you get out of there. But it's great right from the beginning of the day to the end. Always something to do. And lots of exhibits and lots of artwork and crafts to see. And there's things going on all over downtown.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:18:47] There's a wine tasting, too, every year. So stick your kid on one of those inflatables.

John Dersham: [00:18:53] That's right. Go have a glass of wine. It's a great event and I love it. I mean, it's I'm in, well, basically, it started just a couple of years before I started this job, so I haven't missed it since, you know, I've been living here. Really?

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:19:10] Well, I think I attended one prior to taking my position here at the chamber. And it was I mean, it was really fun. But since I've been at the Chamber of Commerce, certainly I've been involved in helping plan.

John Dersham: [00:19:23] Yes, absolutely.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:19:23] And then I attend them, obviously. And I'm thinking, what was I thinking? Not coming sooner? They were so fun. And my children love them. They like to come hang out and help and so.

John Dersham: [00:19:35] We have a lot of things here.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:19:37] What is the number one tourism? Well, like, as far as when all the people that come here, what's the number one thing they do?

John Dersham: [00:19:46] Okay. So since we're destination marketing, there are things that attract a visitor. And, you know, you would love to promote specifically a named hotel, but that isn't what they why they come. They come because of the features of the community. So they come for really cool downtown, which Fort Payne is, and the others in the community, Fyffe and Ider, all of those Rainsville, you know, there's things to do there. But they're coming for our scenic beauty, and leisure events. So they're coming for the festivals. They're coming to rent a cabin, hang their feet off the side of the rail, and they're coming to hike. Some are coming to Bike Little River Canyon de Soto State Park Buck's Pocket. So we got two major state parks in the county and a national preserve. So last year we came real close to a million people to visit Little River Canyon. And they count them. They have they have a counting system in each of the national park units. They're kind of hanging in trees, from what I understand. And they have a formula for, you know, how many times the same car would go by type of thing, how many people are in the car? So that's a lot of visitors. It is. And it brings a lot of economy, a lot of dollars spent in the area when those people were coming to visit, especially if they're coming from far enough, they're going to spend the night. Now, when they come from nearby communities or in Georgia, if they don't if they don't spend the night, they we don't capture those as tourism dollars. So our formula and tourism always starts with lodging tax. That's how the rest of the numbers are calculated. But no matter where they're coming from, if they're coming to spend a day at Little River Canyon, they're going to buy food, they're going to buy gas, they're going to they're going to have a good retail spend, which our communities are collecting those retail dollars. So it's all good when somebody comes to town.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:21:44] And there are plenty of free fun things to do besides the hiking and biking. We have the Depot Museum, which is fantastic, beautiful. We have.

John Dersham: [00:21:53] It's beautifully done. Neatest place.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:21:56] The railroad. The model.

John Dersham: [00:21:59] Yeah, the model railroad and the Coal and Iron Building on the second floor. It's really cool. I mean, we just have lots of parks. We got the Hosiery Museum?

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:22:08] Yes, the Hosiery Museum.

John Dersham: [00:22:09] We've got the opera house that you got to go see.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:22:11] And they're starting to do more shows, events, opera. That makes me happy.

John Dersham: [00:22:16] Oh, no, it's really good. We've got such neat architecture and so much of it goes back to the late 1800s when the town was boomed by New Englanders came down here on a newly operating train system. And, you know, they brought some wealth and they built a community and they built a lot of really nice architecture and homes that a lot of which is still here. So it's very exciting. It's an exciting place to live. It's an exciting place to visit.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:22:42] Yeah. And we've got lodging, too, and now downtown as well. So if you're. Some people prefer the a cabin in the woods. We have plenty of those, which are fabulous, too. But some people want a downtown experience.

John Dersham: [00:22:56] They do. They really do. And they want to be right there. They want to walk down. Yes. From their lodging and just be on the on foot.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:23:03] And we've got well, we've got the Lofts on Gault and then we've got other houses that are really like within a block of downtown or a few blocks walkable anyway that are available. So that's encouraging.

John Dersham: [00:23:18] And oh. And it's encouraging to see the foot traffic downtown Fort Payne compared to what it was. Just in the last seven years or so, the number of people on foot night, I mean, even in the night hours and during the day, there's a lot more people walking around because it proves that there's a lot more to do. So there's an old tourism thing is that if a family comes to your town for the first time, they'll head straight for downtown, whatever downtown is considered because they know that's where the neat shops are. Well, they'll park in front of a business that they recognize is open and they get out of their cars. And if they walk down the street, let's say, to the north and the next three stores are totally empty, they turn around and go back to their car and drive away. But if they can see that there's something to go to all down the street, you keep them for a long time. And that's why you're starting to see people on foot because they're parking in one spot of maybe at the other end of downtown and they know there's enough activity downtown and enough things open that they're doing both sides of the road up and down. And you didn't used to see that here because people, especially the visitors, they would come and they'd say, oh, not much open, I'll leave. Right? They go to the park.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:24:35] And Mondays, you know, it's hard to and this is not unique to our community. A lot of especially restaurants are closed on Mondays. Yes. Because to them, Sunday and Monday are their off days to have a little bit of time off. But man, to encourage people to stay over the weekend and have more options on Monday would be great.

John Dersham: [00:24:56] It is, especially with the Monday holidays. And you know, if we can get that extra night, the income dramatically increases for the city and the county when we can keep visitors an extra day. And the most typical time to keep them an extra day is on those Monday holidays.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:25:13] Now, I know you don't talk to the tourists when they come. I mean, you do if you see them, but in general. But do you ever have anyone call that was visiting and say, you know, I had a great experience, but I wish you had?

John Dersham: [00:25:26] Uh, yeah, I get that with some of the major retailers and restaurants. I wish you had an Olive Garden. You know, I wish you had a target and things like that. But as far as the motivators that brought them here? No, I mean, they can't. They come for a specific reason now. Sometimes things are not open, perhaps in Mentone when they're there and they're upset because they think it's a really neat spot and a really neat shop, but it doesn't happen to be open. And, you know, that's. You know.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:26:04] That's the double-edged sword of small businesses. They don't have enough people to keep it open. And, you know, it's a lot of times just the owners.

John Dersham: [00:26:11] Some of them are part time businesses. Their weekend businesses, just the way they operate. Mostly what I do hear is how nice our people are.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:26:20] That's wonderful.

John Dersham: [00:26:21] That's an incredible comment because I've lived around the country and a lot of times that isn't what you're hearing. And when I go to the major tourism events that the major cities like Birmingham and Huntsville and some of them, you know, they get a lot more emphatic and troublesome type of comments from their visitors. We don't. It's incredible how positive our visitors are. I mean, they they they come here, they like it. They get attached to it. And with our visitors, they come back over and over and over. See, that's not true of a lot of areas. They come as a tourist. Once they see it, they go home and they don't go back.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:27:04] But here we have people coming here after they visit. I mean, they've decided, especially.

John Dersham: [00:27:09] After they retire.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:27:09] Yes. They're decided that this is the best little community they've visited and they're moving to us.

John Dersham: [00:27:14] So the formula for tourism is that, number one, when you get people to come once. So our job as a destination marketing organization is to advertise to people that do not live here. So we reach out with our advertising and we do it at a distance that we target. Like in the fall, we target the coastal areas because that's who's coming in the spring, or winter, February, March, we target out Ohio, Illinois, you know, points north Tennessee because spring comes earlier and they know it here. So they come down. But once you get them, you got to get them back. So since we have such a high return rate on our visitors and some people, you know, they stay in a cabin, they make sure it's the same cabin every single year and they come every year. So that's a big piece of our business. But the thing that retains them in addition to what they just like coming is the fact that we treat them right. You never get a complaint? Well, somebody John, somebody was extremely rude to me at such and such a place. We just don't get those. And that is such a typical criticism to get all around the country. But we we treat people with respect and dignity and they enjoy their visit and we're nice to them and we're cheerful to them. And wow, they notice that. So they do come back.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:28:33] Thank you, DeKalb County, for being nice to people when they come. Exactly.

John Dersham: [00:28:37] And they are. We are. Everybody is.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:28:40] So what do you have any other numbers you want to share with us or information?

John Dersham: [00:28:44] Well, I'll just give you an idea about just how big tourism is. So last year, just in DeKalb County, tourists spent $149 million. And that means that for those dollars to be in that 149 million, they had to pay for lodging. Anywhere in the county. They paid for lodging and that started the rest of the piece of that formula.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:29:09] Now, understand, listeners, that money didn't go back to DeKalb County. As far as the government portion of it. That's just what they spent on lodging. Right.

John Dersham: [00:29:18] That's right.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:29:19] Okay. So we did receive a our taxable part of that. Yes.

John Dersham: [00:29:23] So like in Fort Payne, they're receiving, they're receiving the taxes, multiple types of taxes on that. And certain cities. There's other there's convention taxes, things like that. But they receive lodging tax and they receive retail taxes. So when a visitor comes, they buy a lot of stuff. And all of those have retail dollars. So that is in that 149 million. So they bought the lodging that triggers. And when they buy the lodging, we collect where they're from because they're giving us that data when they give their card and the zip code determines it and the economic formula for cost of living, how much hotels are and everything here. That's where we get over $600 a day that I was telling you about. Yeah. So that's that's tremendous. And so. If you look at the state of Alabama, this is impressive. We had tourism meetings last week. Tourists Googled the state of Alabama, sixth in the entire country. Wow. Last year. And that includes District of Columbia, because from a tourism standpoint, that's a separate state. So out of 51 locations, Alabama was six. So people were looking at data on visiting Alabama, number six in the whole country. That's great. It's very impressive. And it was even more impressive during COVID because people thought, well, we can come to Alabama and we can go to the beach, we can go to the mountains, and we don't need to worry about being like penned in close to people who the ones that really got hurt were the big convention cities like Huntsville and Birmingham wiped them out. So and they're still recovering. But but for us, it was leisure tourism.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:31:15] Well, even for people who lived here, I can't tell you the number of people who said, you know what, I went to DeSoto State Park. I haven't been there in years. Exactly. And hiked. I mean, we people do this all over to you. Take it for granted, which you have right in your backyard.

John Dersham: [00:31:28] So we had our biggest year in DeKalb County and in the state in in 22, 21 and 22. I just got the numbers for the state. We were up 12% statewide, 22 over 21. Now, I don't have my 22 numbers yet. That comes out in a couple of weeks. I'll have one of these little books that I've showed you that has gives me all the numbers. But it's incredible that we beat 21 because after after 2020 was our only down year in more than a decade, we were down a little bit statewide at the Great Recession, and then we weren't down again. It was just straight up until 20 and then it dropped off. But then we came back so strong in 21. We like had the biggest year ever in history by far. So we've had perpetual growth in DeKalb County. So if you look at our little pie chart, which I know you can't see this out there, but I'm going to show Jennifer and you'll see the lines. We got 17 years worth of history there.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:32:29] Wow. Yes. You see. Can our readers find this somewhere? Is it online anywhere or. No, not our readers, our listeners.

John Dersham: [00:32:37] Not not not this particular book. But you'll see those lines. That is 9/11. And then I mean, that's the Great Recession. And 9/11 had just a little bit of a blip in there. And now let's see. Yeah, that's the Great Recession 9/11 now dropped off my numbers. It only keeps 17 years on that chart, but we have a real success record here. And, you know, the community certainly deserves, you know, the growth that we're getting because people people really love to come here.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:33:14] If someone was wanting to get into the tourism world what would you suggest? Is there a void? Is there someplace that's not being filled around tourism that maybe somebody in our community could fill?

John Dersham: [00:33:27] Well, the Alabama State Parks have job openings and that's a wonderful career. But a lot of the lodging in all throughout the state needs, needs. We need more hospitality workers. So we have several.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:33:43] My thinking was more along the lines of is there a service not being offered or do we need more lodging or is there some something, a venue space or something that maybe we're missing out on?

John Dersham: [00:33:57] We need more bike trails that are continuous badly. We badly need those. We tried a couple of different things that fell through at the last minute. We were going to have a bike trail that went up from the basically from the rec center up to the top of the mountain and then joined in to DeSoto State Park Trails, which also joined Little River Canyon trails that would give us a long all day ride. What happened was the piece to get to the top of the mountain at the last minute, it failed. But we really need that because there's so many people that are just so dedicated to mountain biking or street biking. So there's nowhere in the county that has bicycle lanes.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:34:43] We need that. You're right.

John Dersham: [00:34:44] We need bicycle lanes. But even just as important, we need mountain mountain bike opportunities because once you get to the top of the mountain, you've got a pretty good trail system that connects DeSoto State Park and Little River Canyon just to be able to get up there.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:34:58] Yeah, well, I would be that's an important I would be in favor of an incline just because riding a bike up the mountain does not sound fun to me.

John Dersham: [00:35:07] I don't think I could make it up the mountain on the bicycle.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:35:10] John, is there, maybe there should be a little restaurant at the top for people. Encouragers like you and I. We could cheer them on while we enjoy a beverage and maybe a nice meal. And as they ride by, we can maybe pour water on them or something.

John Dersham: [00:35:25] I know an incline up to the mountain that led to a restaurant with a big deck. That'd be nice. That would be very nice.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:35:30] So there's there's an opportunity for someone.

John Dersham: [00:35:32] Is a couple really good views of downtown Fort Payne, which is a very attractive view of Fort Payne. Maybe be a couple places. You got to clear some trees, top the trees.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:35:43] OKay people, give us a call if you're interested. We've got some opportunities for, you know.

John Dersham: [00:35:47] It would go over well.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:35:49] Is there anything else we haven't talked about? John?

John Dersham: [00:35:52] No, I don't think I think that what people want to know is that, you know, we we are successful here as far as attracting the visitors and attracting those dollars. And as long as we treat them right, they're not going to stop coming.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:36:08] And as we sit here, I'm thinking of stuff we didn't even touch on, like live music. We have so many artists in our community. There's always pockets of entertainment happening around town.

John Dersham: [00:36:08] That's right. And we have restaurants and bars around town that are providing music on the weekend. And we're not just talking about we're talking about quality music. We just have great entertainers.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:36:30] There are so many people for our listeners that live in Fort Payne, musicians, talented musicians who could go and live anywhere. They're here, right here in our backyard.

John Dersham: [00:36:41] I know I'm jealous of those people. I tried to play guitar and really couldn't, but well, they looked like they were born with it and just pick anything.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:36:50] Oh, the talent.

John Dersham: [00:36:51] Totally amazed.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:36:52] Blown away.

John Dersham: [00:36:52] People's ability to play musical instruments.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:36:56] Well, we appreciate them playing music for us on the weekends and whenever they can. So we'll put in our show notes, information about June Jam. Yep, Boom Days. Some of the venues that we've talked about and ways you can. Um, times to visit, I guess. I mean, there's any time we'll take you any time.

John Dersham: [00:37:17] And I should say that, you know, if you want, we do an annual travel guide. The Times Journal helps us with it. They sell some advertising in it to help pay for it. But it's a travel guide that has everything to see and do countywide. Yes. And that one is one that we distribute, you know, stacks of every week, because in our advertising, we include the fact, you know, order here for the travel guide on our website and or on phone call. And it it basically will walk you through everything there is to do. So if you want some of those. We're at 2414 Airport Road West, right now. So it's not officially a visitor center. It's (256) 845-3957. So if people call us and they want to come in and we can give them a travel guide and we've got a whole series of other travel guides that concern specific things like we got the motorcycle trail, we've got the wine trail,

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:38:16] The Waterfall Trail,

John Dersham: [00:38:17] Waterfall Trail,

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:38:17] Hallelujah trail,

John Dersham: [00:38:18] Hallelujah trail. 100 year old churches that have been never been out of service.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:38:23] And some of these touch on us. I mean, obviously waterfalls. Yes. The Hallelujah Trail does. That's right. Motorcycle trail probably does as well. It does.

John Dersham: [00:38:30] Yes. In fact, this brochure of which I happen to do the photography for, there's a picture on the Scenic Parkway for this guide. So it's really cool. Yes. We got we got.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:38:40] If anyone wants to open up a winery, a vineyard here, you know, Fort Payne or DeKalb County

John Dersham: [00:38:40] I offer taste testing.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:38:47] We can add that to our wine trail as well. So there's an opportunity. So we're John and I are all about the eating and drinking opportunities.

John Dersham: [00:38:57] Hmmm...I like it. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Jennifer.

John Dersham: [00:39:02] Really enjoyed it. Good.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:39:03] And you'll I hope you'll come back.

John Dersham: [00:39:05] Absolutely. Okay.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:39:06] Yep. Good deal. Thanks. Thank you.

Narrator: [00:39:09] You've been listening to Business is Booming, a podcast brought to you by Fort Payne Chamber of Commerce. The host is Chamber Director Jennifer McCurdy, executive producer Stephen B Smith with assistant producer Emily Kirby. Our engineer is Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studios. Business is Booming is a production of Rare Life Media.