You could hear the buzz on Wednesday as people swarmed the streets of downtown: &uot;Can you imagine if this is what it was like every day?&uot;

Imagine indeed. The blessing in disguise that Hurricane Ivan brought to the Miss-Lou last week was thousands of visitors who were willing to spend a little money and learn a lot about our hospitality.

But we shouldn’t have to wait for the next natural disaster to evacuate the coast to find out just how great it is to have so many people in town.

Natchez has an opportunity &045; enumerated this time in a plan by tourism consultant Stu Barash &045; to expand one of its largest industries.

Yes, some of the Barash study, which advocates new and more marketing techniques and a reorganization of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, is similar to ideas others have proposed over the years.

But why hasn’t any of that been put into practice?

We have a great opportunity to take what Barash and others have laid out and turn it into an action plan.

That action plan must begin with the mayor and board of aldermen, the only group which can make decisions such as restructuring the CVB or providing more money for marketing tourism.

But all of us have to be willing to take part in the plan, whether that is taking a look at longer store hours or ways to improve or add to existing events.

We proved last week what we can do when we have a huge group of unexpected &uot;tourists&uot; in town &045; now we have to do what it takes to make sure that happens much more often, and hopefully under less unpleasant circumstances.