OCEAN SPRINGS, MS (WLOX) -
A perfect storm of sports is brewing over New Orleans, and Mississippi tourism officials aren't about to caught unprepared for the rain.
"New Orleans is a great convention city, but they are going to sell out. So, those folks have to stay somewhere," said Jim Sutton of Vision Tours. "The Mississippi Gulf Coast is the place they would naturally go to."
Anticipating the overflow of game day fans, Mississippi tourism officials created a deal: get a free ride to the game when fans book a two night stay on the Mississippi coast.
Fans have jumped aboard.
"They put this package together because they knew it was going to be huge demand. They were looking for a Mississippi company to take care of our Mississippi tourists, and we're the guys to do that," said Sutton.
While the deal works well for hotels, it's great for Vision Tours which is a local bus company.
In a month that is usually slow, the company is sending 12 buses full of fans to the BCS Championship game, and that's not even including the Saturday trips to see the Saints.
"It's a huge, huge deal to be able to move this many people," said Sutton.
Vision Tours was born in the aftermath of Katrina with Go Zone funds. Jim Sutton and his wife Jane started the company after a bad experience with another bus company.
"When Jane and I came back we decided that maybe we could do that sort of transportation differently, better," said Sutton.
Six years later, the company is working to make travel easy for tourists, and to make it easy for them to come back for more.
Copyright 2012 WLOX. All rights reserved.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2012 WorldNow and WLOX, a Raycom Media Station. 