Tourism is Natchez’s biggest industry and a few news items last week put the spotlight on the area’s tourism efforts.

The tourism stories, however, were just a few of the good news items reported last week.

Here is a look at highlights of last week’s good news items.

* Tourism professionals gathered at the Natchez Convention Center on Oct. 1 for the Visit Natchez and the Natchez Convention Promotion Commission’s conference “Tourism 2019 — The Next Steps” which is sort of a “state of tourism in Natchez” event.

The meeting highlighted the past year’s tourism successes and pointed toward the future in efforts to grow tourism. Such planning and discussion are keys to growing our community’s tourism.

* Fall Pilgrimage wrapped up Monday with another successful season, in which organizers say more young people are participating. It is no surprise the younger people are participating as pilgrimage organizers have made efforts to include more events, such as Ghost Tours at Longwood, to attract younger crowds.

That’s good news, indeed, as a younger crowd will be important to future success of pilgrimage.

* Also in the realm of tourism, Natchez’s recent efforts to make downtown more attractive to locals and tourists alike earned kudos when the American Planning Association named Natchez’s downtown revitalization and economic development project the recipient of Mississippi’s 2018 Best Project and Outstanding Project Award.

No doubt, Natchez has a great plan, now it’s time to implement it.

Those are just a few of the positive news items from the Miss-Lou during the past week and more will be coming this week, we are sure of it.