From The Archives: 2004 Tyler tourism summit

TYLER, Texas ( KETK ) –  In this From the Archives report from 2004, we take a look back at the City of Tyler’s tourism summit in 2004 as they anticipated a boost in the economy from summer travels.

Summer travel in 2004 was projected to bring in $837 million across the U.S. and East Texas tourism officials wanted in on the numbers.

East Texas tourism officials felt like the best way to for them capitalize was the Texas Forest Trail.

“A lot of representatives from the different areas of the Texas Forest Trail are here today learning about the trends and how they can make their marketing material better,” one summit speaker said.

At the summit they discussed how small towns have more potential for tourism than they think.

“Rural tourism is a huge growth market, people want to get out into a quieter place, a cute little village,” the summit speaker said

Leadership and business owners from small towns discussed how they can benefit from working together.

“You can stay in one city, and then spoke out into different cities around,” one attendee said.

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