By Alabama Public Radio
Alabama – The Natchez Trace is the focus of a new partnership.
Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee have now signed the Natchez Trace Compact, which will help create a multi-state agency in charge of promoting tourism along the popular scenic byway. Tourism officials from the three states met recently in Tupelo to review legal details of the agreement, which call for the three states and several major cities to fund the new tourism agency. Each state and city will pay 5-thousand dollars in yearly dues to the agency.
Mississippi tourism officials first formed the compact in 1999 as a single-state venture, but it was expanded to include Alabama and Tennessee because the byway runs through them as well.