Colbert County tourism brings $115 million in revenue for 2023

COLBERT COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — The Colbert County Tourism recently received Organization of the Year by the Alabama State Tourism.

As you cross into Colbert County you’re greeted with music, history and more. In 2023, visitors spent over $115 million in tourism and over the past five years, lodging revenue has doubled in the county.

President Colbert Co. Tourism, Susann Hamlin, says the hotels are the busiest.

“The lodging in our hotels are very very good, we have one hotel running at about 94% occupancy which is almost unheard of, and many of them are running in the high seventies,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin said the most popular attractions that bring in the most revenue to Colbert County are the Music Hall of Fame and the Hellen Keller Home in Tuscumbia.

“We often have group tours here, we of course have a lot of drive-in traffic, coming up from all across the southeast and literally across the nation, and the good news is, we have a lot of international guests too,” Hamlin said.

Data showed that thousands of visitors in the last year were from all over the world… and Hamlin said so far this year, they are on track to increase those numbers again, especially with some new features coming to town for guests.

“We are also working on a lot of different venues, we want a lot more music venues, live music venues because that brings in overnight stays and that’s what brings in and develops our budgets, we are always trying to fill hotel rooms,” she said.

Hamlin added that tourism brought 1,524 jobs to the county in 2023, and Hamlin says, it only goes up from here.

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