LEONARD GRAY

ST. ROSE – One major thrust in the coming months for the River Parishes Tourism Commission will be to push identity. In the past, individual parishes have thrust their own names before tourists. Now, urged chairman Paul Aucoin, the marketing direction will be to unify all three parishes into a whole region. At a commission meeting held recently at the St. Rose Travel Center, Aucoin called the effort a “name recognition initiative,” and included with that effort will be a drive to bring the commission itself more into the public eye. The panel was originally saddled with the unwieldy name of “The River Parishes Convention, Tourist and Visitors Commission.” Upon official action by all three parish councils, that has been shortened to the River Parishes Tourism Commission. With such an effort underway, another thrust will be a more cooperative spirit, promoting each other’s tourism attractions and events. For example, more of a thrust is being made in St. John the Baptist and St. James parishes to promote this weekend’s Louisiana Catfish Festival in St. Charles Parish. Part of the name recognition effort will be the urging of area media, including newspapers, television and the Internet, to identify individual parishes as being part of the River Parishes region. Similarly, the commission itself will make more of a thrust to get its own name linked in the public’s mind to the region, Aucoin added. In other activity, the commission agreed to work with the individual parishes’ economic development departments to coordinate tourism efforts, even to the revision of parish brochures. Also, the commission is seeking a permanent address, and have heard proposals from two area hotels for dedicated office space for the commission and its executive director, once one is hired. Initial consideration is being made to have a centrally located site. Already, each tourism center in St. Charles and St. James parishes provide tourism information on each other. The St. Charles Parish center, located in the West Bridge Park in Luling, and the St. James Parish center, located on Airline Highway near Gramercy, cooperate on promotional efforts. The commission is expecting to receive anticipated state funding soon, which will fund the permanent office as well as its promotional efforts. Aucoin also was the guest speaker at the recent dedication of the St. James Parish Tourism Center, where he told those assembled the new center “would be an attraction, in and of itself.” The next scheduled meeting of the commission is set for Aug. 9 at 9:30 a.m. at the Hampton Inn in LaPlace.