Tourism Day celebrated at welcome center in Lanett
BY JOHN BRICE
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
CHAMBERS COUNTY — Staff members at the Alabama Welcome Center in Lanett joined together with local organizations to celebrate Tourism Day and greet travelers on Thursday, May 7. Tables were set up by a variety of local organizations to offer information and complimentary gifts to visitors at the welcome center as they arrived. Alabama Welcome Center in Lanett Manager Gabby Striblin-Shaddix shared her excitement for the event.
“This is our Tourism Day and May is National Tourism Month,” she said. “Each welcome center in the state, there are eight on the major interstates, takes a day to celebrate our partners and our local vendors. We have food that has been donated from Conecuh Sausage and Bud’s Best Cookies. We have drinks for our travelers that are coming through. We have some of our partners set up with the state parks, our local library, Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce and Opelika Main Street. Just a bunch of different organizations that promote the state.”
Striblin-Shaddix explained the mission that the welcome center serves for the public.
“I always say that we like to make a good first impression when people enter Alabama,” she said. “We are one of the busiest welcome centers between Atlanta and Montgomery, and welcome center but this is one of the busiest roads in the country. When you first come in you get welcomed to Alabama, you get directions and you get information on where you are going. Even if you are not staying in Alabama, we will help you get where you are going. A lot of our guests are local people. We promote everything to do in the state. We are just very proud of it.”
Reactions from the community towards having the welcome center in their area was another topic that Striblin-Shaddix shared the importance of.
“[Tourists] love it,” she said. “Especially since it is one of the newer [welcome centers], we have only been open here about four years. There was one here before that had a lot of character. A bunch of people come in and they are like ‘Wow, I did not realize that we had all of this to do in Alabama.’ I am like absolutely, spend your money in Alabama, keep it local. There is tons to see and do [in Alabama], You don’t have to go to Florida for the beaches, you can go to Gulf Shores or Orange Beach.”
Greater Valley Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Assistant Harley Thomaston also shared her excitement for the celebration and the importance of Tourism Day.
“We are welcoming everyone who comes in and stops by whether they are local or not,” she said. “The chamber is set up here, we have all of our local area information and some t-shirts and things like that just to get our community together. I think this refresh has put us forward with it being so state-of-the-art. With all of the information inside I think this is beneficial to everybody that comes through from Georgia on this 85 corridor. If you haven’t stopped in to see it, you need to.”
