More Biloxi Hotel Rooms are Open
Autumn is for golfers, car buffs, artists
By TOM WILEMON
tewilemon@sunherald.com
BILOXI - Autumn isn’t the busiest tourism season on the Coast, but it may the smartest time to visit - especially for golfers, art lovers and car enthusiasts.
New and renovated golf courses are opening as the weather cools. Cruisin’ the Coast and the Peter Anderson Festival are around the corner. And there are plenty of hotel rooms available. The reopening of three casino resorts last month added 3,000 hotel rooms to the market, a spike that occurred just before Labor Day weekend, the end of the summer when tourism typically slows.
The Coast now has an inventory of about 9,800 rooms.
Keith Crosby, the general manager of the Palace Casino, said it’s the perfect scenario for golf vacations. The Preserve, a course developed by the casino’s owner and designed by Jerry Pate, already is open. Grand Bear, one of that nation’s top 100 courses according to Golf Digest, also is open.
Fallen Oak, the course designed by Tom Fazio for Beau Rivage, opens Nov. 6. The Bridges, a course designed by Arnold Palmer at Hollywood Casino, opens in mid-October.
“Now we have enough synergy of high-quality, championship-level courses where somebody would spend more than a couple of days on the Coast playing all these courses,” Crosby said.
About a dozen other golf courses also are open for play.
Steve Richer, executive director of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau, and the Harrison County Tourism Commission met Friday with their advertising consultant to discuss short-term and long-term marketing goals.
“I think the short-term solution is that you try to pump up more visitation from the drive-in market,” Richer said.
The biggest drive-in event of the year, Cruisin’ the Coast, is Oct. 1-8. It attracts people who own classic cars as well as people who love to watch the antique autos parade down Beach Boulevard. There should be plenty to watch this year. Becky Burdeshaw, registration director for Cruisin’ the Coast, said 3,996 people have pre-registered - which is only 100 fewer than the number who preregistered last year before Katrina cancelled the event.
Burdeshaw said the addition of the hotel rooms is perfect timing for the event, which this year will feature Kool & the Gang in a free concert Oct. 4 at Gulfport’s Rice Pavilion.
“I’ve got a list I fax, mail or e-mail to the cruisers,” Burdeshaw said. “It’s got mom-and-pop motels on it, casinos and bigger hotels. It’s got lodging on it from Pascagoula and Moss Point all the way over to Waveland.”
She has helped people who are arriving in RVs link up with Coast residents who are allowing them to park in their driveways.
“The RV parks are filled with FEMA or construction workers,” she said.
Other tourist draws are the Peter Anderson Festival in Ocean Springs on Nov. 4-5, excursions to barrier islands, entertainment headliners at casinos, and new restaurants.
The Coast’s first celebrity-chef restaurants will opening in this fall. Luke Palladino will open Bragozzo in the Isle of Capri in October. Todd English will open Olives in Beau Rivage in December.
“We’re excited about where we’re headed,” Richer said. “We are focusing on making the rest of 2006 and 2007 as successful as we can be.”
Source: Biloxi Sun HeraldÂÂ