Leading the way for the state’s official marketing organization
As Rochelle Hicks traverses the famous bridges connecting Vidalia, Louisiana, and Natchez, Mississippi, she straddles two places she calls home. Growing up in Vidalia while attending Adams County Christian School in Natchez, then later moving to Natchez during high school, Hicks developed an early understanding of how tourism shapes communities.
“Growing up around Natchez, it’s impossible not to understand how important tourism is to a community,” said Hicks. “I saw motor coaches lining the streets during spring pilgrimage in March and in the fall and tourists on the streets every day. Even at a young age, I could see that people who don’t live there were contributing to our community.”
That early exposure would prove formative. Hicks’s parents, Doris and Don Haltom, owned a gift shop, first in Vidalia and then in downtown Natchez, providing another window into tourism’s economic impact on small communities. Family summer road trips across the South and Midwest—to Six Flags in Texas; Branson, Missouri; and Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and more—planted seeds for her eventual career path.
“My parents loved a road trip,” recalled Hicks. “Our family road trips really influenced my love for travel.”
After studying business administration at the University of Louisiana in Monroe in the early 1990s, Hicks began her tourism career as marketing manager at Lady Luck Casino in Natchez. The position offered invaluable experience in both local and corporate marketing.
“Casino marketing is highly segmented, focused on targeting specific audiences to drive visitation,” explained Hicks. “It was interesting to have that perspective not only a local level, but also through collaboration with the (Las Vegas) corporate office.”
Hicks then spent a dozen years at the Ridgeland Tourism Commission, during which time the Mississippi Crafts Center and the Renaissance at Colony Park opened.
“Seeing the growth and success (of both developments) now is so exciting,” enthused Hicks.
Before assuming her current role, Hicks worked in nonprofit advancement at Canopy Children’s Solutions and Friends of Children’s Hospital for Batson.
In August 2023, Hicks became director of Visit Mississippi, a division of the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) serving as the state’s official destination marketing organization. She arrived at a pivotal point: Mississippi tourism had not only recovered from COVID-19, but was breaking records. The recovery surprised even industry veterans.
“We thought it would take years to get back to where we were with leisure travel,” said Hicks. “But, because Mississippi opened up so much earlier than other states, we began seeing sharp increases in visitation very soon after travel restrictions eased.”
The momentum continued. In 2023, Mississippi welcomed 43.7 million visitors, a record. Then 2024 topped that with 44.2 million visitors contributing $18.1 billion to the economy and supporting 136,094 jobs.
“Travel brings people joy,” noted Hicks. “Mississippi is called the hospitality state because our people are our biggest asset.”
One of Hicks’s early priorities was elevating Mississippi’s brand through strategic storytelling. In 2025, Visit Mississippi relaunched “Birthplace of America’s Music” as its primary campaign, leveraging a tagline that had appeared on state highway signs since Governor Haley Barbour’s administration.
“We talk about music so much, but we should own it,” said Hicks. “We truly are the birthplace of America’s music. Blues was born in the Mississippi Delta, and from the blues, many genres of music were created. Elvis Presley, the King of rock and roll. B.B. King, the King of the blues. Jimmie Rodgers, the Father of country music. There’s just no denying why we’re the birthplace of America’s music.”
The campaign includes national media placements, from a “Good Morning America” segment featuring Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale (co-established by Morgan Freeman) to the Taylor Swift exhibit promotion at the Grammy Museum.
“We generate hundreds of millions of impressions through media coverage,” said Hicks, emphasizing that Mississippi had seven nominees for the 2026 Grammy Awards.
Visit Mississippi also launched “Mississippi on the Map,” a podcast hosted by Grenada native, Charlie Worsham, featuring guests including Freeman, Chris Stapleton, and Marty Stuart. The first season of 12 podcasts, beginning in late 2025, has garnered 1.2 million views and more than 17,000 hours watched.
For the second consecutive year, Visit Mississippi participated in the Rose Parade, exposing the state to 48 million television viewers nationwide and 60 countries via streaming, plus 850,000 spectators along the parade route. This year’s float, “Where Creativity Blooms,” highlighted Mississippi’s artistic heritage.
“The Rose Bowl Parade floats are visually stunning, and the aroma of the florals fills the air,” said Hicks, of the experience. “The scope of the actual float is overwhelming, that every single surface has to be covered in some type of natural material.”
Hicks recently returned from a sales mission to India with Brand USA, discovering infused enthusiasm for American culture abroad.
“What surprised me most was how friendly everybody was, and how they’re enamored with the U.S. and Southern culture,” she said. “They were so excited to have us there and learn about our destination.”
Looking ahead, Hicks sees 2026’s America250 commemoration as a major opportunity.
“Mississippi’s story is deeply woven into the fabric of American history,” she said.
Visit Mississippi is partnering with the America250 Mississippi Commission on a comprehensive marketing campaign highlighting the state’s contributions to American history, from music and literary traditions to its pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement.
When asked what the business community should understand about Visit Mississippi’s role, Hicks emphasized tourism’s broader economic impact.
“Tourism brings outside dollars into Mississippi, and that spending supports local businesses, our downtowns, 136,000 jobs, and tax revenues,” she said. “The legislature takes those tax revenues to improve the quality of life for residents.”
For Hicks, the work remains deeply personal.
“I’m very blessed to bring people to our great state, especially for the first time,” she said. “The governor is right; they do come back!”
Hick’s husband of 27 years, Jason, owns the planning consulting firm Sample, Hicks & Associates in Flowood, focusing on engineering, accounting, research, and management services sectors. Their twins, Isabella and Ethan, turn 22 in March, and attend Mississippi State University, their dad’s alma mater. Isabella graduates in May with a degree in Biochemistry before heading to medical school at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). Ethan, majoring in Building Construction Science, plans to graduate in May, 2027.
Tourism’s Economic Powerhouse
The work Hicks and her team have done has paid off. Visitors spend $32.6 million per day in Mississippi.
Mississippi’s tourism industry generated record-breaking economic impact in 2024, according to Visit Mississippi’s latest Tourism Economic Contribution Report.
The state welcomed 44.2 million visitors in 2024, an increase of 1.1% over 2023. Those visitors spent $11.9 billion, up 3.2%, year-over-year. When including indirect and induced economic effects, the total economic impact reached $18.1 billion, equivalent to visitors spending $32.6 million per day in Mississippi.
The tourism economy supports 136,094 jobs statewide, representing one in every 13 jobs in Mississippi, or 8% of total employment. These jobs span multiple sectors: food and beverage (35,365 jobs), lodging (25,602), business services (16,351), and personal services (16,125). Direct tourism employment alone reached 100,029 positions.
Tourism’s employment intensity varies dramatically by industry. Ninety-eight percent of lodging jobs are visitor-supported, as are 38% of recreation jobs, and 27% of food and beverage positions. Overall, direct tourism jobs accounted for 5 to 9% of all Mississippi employment in 2024.
The visitor economy generated $4.6 billion in personal income, equivalent to nearly $4,100 per resident household, regardless of connection to the tourism industry.
Tax revenues from tourism totaled $2.2 billion, with state and local governments receiving $1.1 billion. This represents tax savings of $1,015 per household, the amount each Mississippi household would need to pay in additional taxes to replace visitor-generated state and local tax revenues.
Visitor spending by category breaks down as follows: food and beverage ($3 billion, 25%), lodging ($2.6 billion, 22%), recreation and entertainment ($2.5 billion, 21%), retail ($2.1 billion, 17%), and transportation ($1.8 billion, 15%).
The rapid post-pandemic recovery exceeded industry expectations. Mississippi welcomed 31.4 million visitors in 2020 during COVID-19 restrictions. By 2021, visitation surged 22% to $38.3 million, followed by continued growth: 43 million (2022), 43.7 million (2023), and, as mentioned, 44.2 million (2024).
Domestic visitors account for 99.7% of Mississippi’s tourism. Even though international visitors remain steady, accounting for only .03% of visitors, they spend more. In 2024, per-visitor spending grew by 11.4%, with per-visitor spending of $1,052, compared to $267 for domestic visitors.
Day visitors comprised 60% of total visitation, with overnight visitors accounting for 40%. Recreation led to spending growth in 2024, increasing 5.8% year-over-year, followed by retail (+4.3%) and transportation (+3.6%). Lodging spending declined slightly (0.4%) as overnight visitation decreased 0.6%.
Mississippi’s visitor economy represented 5% of the state’s entire GDP in 2024, generating $8.4 billion in GDP (gross domestic products).