Craig Ray Quotations

If you said 'millions,' I'd guess you'd be safe, if you look at the big picture.

This will be a unique draw that the state doesn't have. The rest of the state has gaming and different types of history and culture, but again bringing this in, new meeting space, new hotel, this is a new look for other tourists.

Maybe the number of travelers aren't as high, but the money spent is way up. The travelers are staying longer and spending more money. When you look at it in that sense, I'd say it's very positive.

Tourism is a $6.35 billion industry and a huge part of the local economy along this coast. Katrina not only washed away the culturally historic communities here, it also washed away a big part of our livelihood, but it could not take away our spirit. I cannot believe the substantial progress Tourism - Caring for America volunteers made. With 20 percent of our economy laid off due to Katrina-related issues, we have been working day in and day out over the past six months to get our communities back on track. This kind of concentrated effort makes us feel like we moved mountains in just a few days.

reach outside your boundaries. We want to keep a large percentage of the $2 billion in business from the Gulf Coast in this state.

Of course we don't consider Katrina anything but an immense natural disaster; however, if there is something good to be said it includes that the Mississippi's other four regions and their unique, high-quality attractions are in the spotlight.

After the first of the year, the governor will ask for specific funds for economic development and tourism to re-market the state of Mississippi.

Mississippi has worked hard to entice avid golf-and-gaming travelers to visit our great state, because we knew if we got them here once, they would come back. The sales increases demonstrate the rising trend of visitors to Mississippi and we hope increasingly more visitors will judge our offerings for themselves.

This was big for us after coming off two losses to get a win like this, ... It was nice to finally win on the road.

Without a doubt we have been handed as extreme a challenge of rebuilding on the Gulf Coast as imaginable. But Mississippi is a great state with great people, and already we're welcoming golf, gaming and other tourists to the rest of the state. This will help the state and the state in turn will be better equipped to help the Gulf Coast and its residents affected by Katrina the more visitors we host. So the best thing we can and will do is to keep keeping on. We want visitors to come see why Mississippi is a special place and judge for themselves why Mississippi is considered a rising star of the golf-and-gaming world.