re: Gallup Poll: Residents Who Said Their State Was The Best to Live In

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I'd be willing to bet that out of the 4.5 million visitors to the Alabama beaches a year 4 million of them or Alabama residents.

The other 10-15 million tha go to NASCAR, football games and play golf are also Alabama residents. So the Gumps stats are skewed.

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Now you're just sounding petty over the fact you cannot accept that people enjoying coming to Alabama in similar numbers as they do Louisiana. Louisiana is a great place to visit. It's been a long time since I was there but I hope to return soon. Why is it you cannot accept that Alabama is also a great place to visit? You're honestly sounding like you're jealous over this.

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let's divide all these people up into "event" tourists and "place" tourists

that should be good for a few more pages

Bro I'm just fricking with you. I go to Alabama quite a bit I have 1000 acres in Choctaw County I usually spend about total 20-25 days but year at my lease I also travel to Mobile quite a bit for work and end up having to stay overnight as well as a travel baseball tourney or 2 a year. It's not a bad place I'm really just fricking around.

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I don't even know if you would be able to find that information. I'm just messing with you, because I do believe New Orleans is much more of an international destination than anything in Alabama. The last Mardi Gras I went to I met people from 4 continents, and I've met folks from all 6 of the permanently inhabited ones over the years.

None of that means that I believe Louisiana is better than Alabama, btw. Neither are in my top ten.

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No doubt that NO is something that we do not have anything comparable to when it comes to a tourist destination city. I believe the number I saw posted for NO last year was like 9 million. That means that one city had almost half as many visitors as our entire state.

And I think that may be part of why many people do not realize Alabama has a big tourist economy unlike LA and specifically NOLA. It's easy to see how those are tourist areas, especially with things like Mardi Gras. You've got huge crowds that every one can see. In Alabama it's a bit different. Other than the beaches of Gulf Shores, our tourists are more spread out over the state. I think a good example of this is the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. The RTJ is a series of 12 golf courses all across the state of Alabama that thousands of people come from literally all over the world to play. But it's spread out over the whole state so unless you're standing on a tee box waiting for the foursome of Chinese tourists to take their next shot, you probably don't realize how many people come to Alabama for golf. And that's just one example. There's also things like the Talladega Race where you're looking at a crowd of something like 150,000 to 200,000 every year. And let's not forget college football. We've got two of the biggest college football programs in the nation in our state. Every home game for either Auburn or Alabama brings in over 100,000 to either Tuscaloosa or Auburn, many from in state but also many from out of state.

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Louisiana residents are so ungrateful. Best state in the union.

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It would be better if North Louisiana Baptists didn't have so much sway.

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Darth_Vader

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Those tourism numbers aren't counted like your football team's "championships" are they?

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And let's not forget college football. We've got two of the biggest college football programs in the nation in our state. Every home game for either Auburn or Alabama brings in over 100,000 to either Tuscaloosa or Auburn, many from in state but also many from out of state.

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Indeed... A little story for you that you probably won't like.

A couple of years ago I walked into a shop in Edinburgh, Scotland. The guy at the register was wearing a University of Alabama t-shirt, so obviously I was intrigued... I thought maybe he's an American, because why would a Scotsman be interested in COLLEGE football? Nope. This young guy hadn't even been to the U.S. yet, but he said that he felt like he had been born in the wrong place. He loved football, wanted to see the American West, wanted to go shooting, etc.

This cat was really excited to talk college football... I probably spent half an hour shooting the shite with him. He was a legit Bama fan... He knew the players, followed recruiting, etc. Of course, I told him he chose to follow the wrong team.

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Indeed... A little story for you that you probably won't like.

A couple of years ago I walked into a shop in Edinburgh, Scotland. The guy at the register was wearing a University of Alabama t-shirt, so obviously I was intrigued... I thought maybe he's an American, because why would a Scotsman be interested in COLLEGE football? Nope. This young guy hadn't even been to the U.S. yet, but he said that he felt like he had been born in the wrong place. He loved football, wanted to see the American West, wanted to go shooting, etc.

This cat was really excited to talk college football... I probably spent half an hour shooting the shite with him. He was a legit Bama fan... He knew the players, followed recruiting, etc. Of course, I told him he chose to follow the wrong team.

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That's awesome. Speaking of tourists coming from out of town. I remember the night before the 2004 Iron Bowl me and three buddies were down at one of the bars on the strip in Tuscaloosa. Two of us were AU fans and the other two were Bama fans. Of course we're all wearing our colors (I'll admit we were all wearing jerseys).

While we were sitting there drinking and shooting the shite this couple walked up and strikes up a conversation with us. Turns out they were from Michigan (Big Blue Fans) and every year they went around the country to take in different big time college football games. They were amazed we were friends with people on the "other side". We even had to let them take a picture of us so their friends back home in Michigan would believe that Bama & AU fans were not like the Bloods & Crips towards one another.

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Ohio State/Michigan rivalry is serious business...

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Yeah, course that 2004 Iron Bowl was before Harvey decided to kill our Oaks.

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wanted to see the American West, 

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I lived in Ketchikan, Alaska for a year back in the 80's and virtually every day I'd see things that would make me stop and just start in pure amazement. I really want to go back and take my wife and kids so they can see what I saw.

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I spent a summer ferrying around SE Alaska staying in hostels.

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That is definitely the way to do it. Cruise with the blue canoe.

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I'd love to have a cabin on a bit of property there one day.

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Haines, man. There's a few cabins up there on a couple of lakes that are below 100k right now.