An Informed Commentary on Florence-Lauderdale Tourism

 

Baron Zemo Moves? We Hear Daniel Bruhl Is Suing.

Now, more on big Rob, the highest paid Tourism Director in the State of Alabama. Why is that? Good question because the numbers just do not add up. Last week, tourism expenditures from the North Alabama region were reported for 2020 by the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association. Out of the 16 counties represented by this association, Lauderdale county ranked 4th in tourism dollars. 

Let's look at the breakdown. Coming in at a strong 1st place is the booming and growing Madison County at $1,220,260,858. That county is lead by Judy Ryals who has been in the tourism industry for 41 years in Madison County. Big Rob, well he has been here 4 or 5 years or so, and makes more money that Ms. Ryals. Moving on, the 2nd highest tourism expenditures in the North Alabama region was Marshall County at 246,932,270. Lauderdale County has far more hotels and attractions than Marshall County and even though Marshall County can brag that they have the famous Lake Guntersville, Lauderdale County has 3 very well known lakes with Wheeler, Wilson and Pickwick all being great fishing, boating and recreational lakes. 3rd place went to Morgan County with $239,128,149 in tourism dollars spent in their county. Why would Morgan County be doing so much better than Lauderdale County?? Because they have a vibrant young director with an incredible educated and tourism minded staff who work their butts off for their county. Decatur Morgan County CVB now has a staff of 7 people working for them. They reach out and bid on archery tournaments, soccer tournaments, TONS of fishing tournaments, pickle ball, corn hole, volleyball, fencing and anything else they feel that would invite visitors into Morgan county and generate tourism. 

How many employees does Florence Lauderdale Tourism have now? Who knows. Maybe its 2 now or perhaps 3. Why??? Now lets look at the numbers from 4th place Lauderdale County, which are $191,023,670. I think it's high time the City of Florence and the Lauderdale County Commission demand some answers from the current board of directors as well as their high paid leader, Canada Rob. I bet if someone showed the old road commissioners how much money they are losing from taxes generated off tourism, they would certainly be mad as hell and make some immediate changes on the board who keeps forking up all the money to give to the tourism director who obviously is NOT doing his job from the looks of the numbers. 

Heck, Colbert County came in at #9 at 71,839,333 and they don't even have a big fancy Marriott hotel or a couple of Hampton Inns or even a Holiday Inn Express and they generated a huge portion of the tourism dollars collected in North Alabama. Why? Because their tourism director works her butt off for her county day and night to generate all the interest and create all the tourism dollars she can. All of these 16 counties work hard for their citizens. They take pride in what they do and they show up and do their best, well except for Canada Rob. But he sings on the weekends and some week nights in a bar in Nashville so....there is that.

Interestingly, we've had several requests for more commentary by Aunt Jane. Sorry, she's not available on a regular basis, but Shoalanda is happy to do a turn with advice to the lovelorn. 

So, you can't find a girl? 

1. Get a decent haircut from a stylist. We have young friends who wear it much too short or much too long and apparently use hedge trimmers for styling. Super fail!

2. Invest in some Bass casual shoes.

3. Take a trip to the thrift store for long-sleeved Oxford shirts and khaki pants. You can also pick up a decent brown belt while you're there.

If this fails, all we can say is that, sadly, it's your personality...