NATCHEZ — Final numbers aren’t tallied, but officials believe Spring Pilgrimage was more successful this year than last.

Natchez Pilgrimage Tours Director Marsha Colson said the base preliminary figures show that the increase is minor, but final numbers won’t be available until mid-May.

“I’m delighted that the house tours sales did as well as they did,” she said.

And numbers gathered from different houses show that, on certain days, between 370 and 400 people passed through on tour.

“We hadn’t had days like that since before (Hurricane) Katrina,” Colson said.

As far as group tours, Colson said a total of 76 groups came through during Spring Pilgrimage, which is a 10 percent decrease from the previous year.

Without the river barge tour and the Delta and American Queens, Colson said having such little decrease is significant.

“I think we did very well in group tours, all in all,” she said.

This year, Colson said NPT worked to market to regional areas to bring people in and focused on day-trippers.

Still, a lot of people came from far and wide, she said.

She heard reports from homeowners that tourists came from Finland, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Texas, Arkansas, Oregon, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Wisconsin and more.

Colson said she learned a lot this year and that each year NPT will continue to add new features to bring more people.

“Every year we’re looking at what we can do differently or better,” she said.

She said this year one of the new initiatives was to have a PowerPoint slideshow with still frame shots of the Historic Natchez Pageant running on a large screen at the visitors’ center.

“It helps (visitors) make a decision on what they want to see. Words can’t describe Pageant. Only a picture can convey that,” Colson said.

She said next year more features can be displayed in a slide show.

Southern Road to Freedom and Pageant sales reports have not yet been tallied.