Alabama tourism outpaces state economy, tourism director tells Hoover chamber

The tourism industry in Alabama is growing twice as fast as the state’s general economy, state tourism director Lee Sentell told the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce today at the group’s October luncheon.

Sentell, who has been director of the Alabama Tourism Department since 2003, spoke to about 160 people at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel.

State lodging tax revenues going to the general fund have risen by 105 percent since 2003, from $24 million to $50 million, Sentell said. Meanwhile, the state’s overall general fund has grown by 47 percent since 2003 (to an estimated $1.8 billion in fiscal 2016), Sentell said.

For people who think tourism doesn’t matter, the taxes that tourism brings into the state saves the average Alabama family $405 in taxes a year, he said.

“Tourism is working for you,” he said.

Sentell praised the contributions of Aldridge Gardens CEO Tynette Lynch, calling her “an important pillar for the tourism industry in the state of Alabama.”

He also noted that some of the barbecue chains in Hoover, such as Full Moon BBQ and Jim ‘N Nick’s BBQ, are routinely on the top 10 lists of barbecue chains in the country.

The state Tourism Department promoted 2015 as the “year of barbecue,” featuring the best places to find barbecue ribs, pulled pork and chicken and the best barbecue festivals around the state. The campaign won a national tourism award.

“Birmingham is the hub of good barbecue for the whole country,” he said.

Sentell said when he became tourism director, he kept hearing from people in Birmingham that they weren’t getting any attention from tourism officials because there is no beach, battleship or rockets in Birmingham.

So he decided to change the conversation and created the “Year of Alabama Food” campaign, featuring the best places for country cooking, barbecue, fine dining and seafood.

As part of that campaign, the tourism department created a brochure of “100 dishes to eat in Alabama before you die.” A TV commercial included four restaurants in Birmingham and three in Tuscaloosa, he said.

A travel writer from the Atlanta Journal Constitution took the brochure and toured the state to sample 100 Alabama dishes in a week. He published a series that “went on and on” about the food offerings in Alabama.

“He said Birmingham has the kind of restaurants Atlanta wishes it had,” Sentell said.

Sentell also praised the Barber Motorsports Museum in Birmingham. “It’s the only place in the world where you can see a thousand different motorcycles in display,” Sentell said. “What George (Barber) has done there is just phenomenal.”

The tourism director also noted that Alabama will kick off its bicentennial celebration in March 2017 in Mobile. The celebration will last three years because Alabama was a territory from 2017 to 2019, and it will conclude in 2019 in a part of downtown Huntsville where the state’s constitution was written.

He recommended two books that will be highlighted as part of the three-year focus: “100 Things You Should Know about Alabama” by Randall Williams and “Alabama: The Making of an American State” by Ed Bridges.