The Clarksdale-Coahoma County Tourism Commission is using its $198,750 in CARES Act funds to promote the community.
Executive director Bubba O’Keefe discussed how some of the funds were being used during the January board meeting. The CARES Act funds came as a result of the COVID pandemic.
Originally, O’Keefe said the funds were supposed to be spent be Dec. 30, 2020, but it was extended for another year.
O’Keefe said he is promoting the Clarksdale area to cities such as Memphis, Tenn., St. Louis, Mo., Little Rock, Ark., New Orleans, La., Birmingham, Ala., Nashville, Tenn., and Atlanta, Ga., as there will not be many visitors from out of the country during the pandemic.
“Those are cities in a key four-to-six-hour radius,” O’Keefe said.
The goal is to remain safe at the same time.
“We are practicing proper safety protocol,” O’Keefe said.
O’Keefe said promoting Clarksdale includes letting people know places such as the Delta Blues Museum are open and venues in the community are playing live blues music many nights.
“The main is to let people know that we are open and that we are practicing safety protocol,” O’Keefe said. “The other thing is it lets the world know we are not sitting back and doing nothing. We are actively pursuing new things to see and do. We’re creating an African-American heritage map and we’re also creating signage boards that will go around the County at historical sites.”
The goal was to have live blues music seven nights a week, 365 days a year prior to the pandemic. Shortly after the COVID pandemic began, musicians began playing virtually. Now, there are more in-person performances.
O’Keefe said a visitor could go to visitclarksdale.com and click on “plan your visit” in the bottom right-hand corner to plan trips accordingly.
“It helps promote self-guided tours,” O’Keefe said. “It allows them to go do it on their own. The whole thing with COVID money is to promote your area and promote your town that practices safety protocol and expand and promote new assets. Those assets being historical sites.”
There is also a touch screen kiosk at the tourism office to help plan visits.
In addition to the visitclarksdale.com website, O’Keefe said tourism is also being promoted through social media at https://www.facebook.com/VisitClarksdale.
