The first couple of days of Pilgrimage has already attracted out-of-towners, including foreign media.
On Wednesday, Columbus received a visit from a Brand USA camera crew, as well as journalists from various French and Belgian media.
Brand USA works with local industry and convention and visitor bureaus to create marketing content that promotes international tourism to different parts of the country. The Columbus Visitors Bureau hired it to film a commercial advertising Columbus to international audiences. The commercial filmed in Columbus will have an English video that will also be published with a German voiceover. Brand USA will also produce an informational article, called an Experience page, about Columbus, which will be translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, Japanese, German and Korean.
“This hits a lot of the markets that we want to hit,” said Nancy Carpenter, CEO and executive director of the Columbus Visitors Bureau.
Victoria Shepherd, the UK host for Brand USA who will appear on the commercial, and the videographer, Bogdan Zlatkov, arrived in Columbus on Tuesday and began filming Wednesday morning. They visited Friendship Cemetery, the Tombigbee Bridge, the Tennessee Williams home and several antebellum homes downtown, according to Carpenter.
Shepherd and Zlatkov will be in Mississippi for 10 days, Shepherd said. In addition to Columbus, they will visit the Natchez Trace Parkway, the Delta, the Jackson area and the Gulf Coast.
“Mississippi definitely has a lot to offer,” Shepherd said.
She and Zlatkov were both enthusiastic about what they had visited in Columbus, especially Friendship Cemetery. They also looked forward to touring the antebellum homes.
“We’re looking for Southern hospitality at its finest,” Shepherd said.
“I thought it was really nice that people still live in the houses,” Zlatkov added. “In most places, they’re just relics.”
Foreign journalists take in Pilgrimage
Wednesday afternoon, the Columbus Visitors Bureau also welcomed a group of four French journalists on a tour with Visit Mississippi’s International Travel Trade Manager, Zach Holifield. The journalists write for a variety of French and Belgian travel magazines and other publications. The group passed through Columbus on part of a larger trip around the state.
Beatrice Leproux, a freelance journalist from Paris, is in Mississippi working on a story for the Belgian magazine Victoire, but she will also spend her trip looking for more stories about the state to write about when she returns in June. She was particularly attracted to the antebellum homes in Columbus.
“I really enjoy this part of the United State,” said Leproux. “For me, that’s a part of America that has a special charm.”
The journalists arrived in Columbus on Wednesday. They had lunch at Harvey’s and then toured the Tennessee Williams home, Friendship Cemetery and several houses, including Temple Heights.
“(T)hese journalists take what they’ve learned about Mississippi and convey that to their audiences and readers in such a way that it makes Mississippi a great place to visit,” Holifield said.
Within the first two days of Pilgrimage, Columbus received visitors from 21 states, as well as Australia and the United Kingdom, according to Carpenter.
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