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

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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.