What The Press Says
NEMS Daily Journal
10.03.09 – 01:01 am
TUPELO – Tupelo’s tourism charm lies in its authenticity as opposed to Graceland’s commercialism, according to a visiting group of international travel writers and photographers.
According to several of the writers, Tupelo accomplished its mission in presenting a compelling reason to visit.
“You make everything right. Now we just have to transfer it to our readers that you do everything right and they have to come to you,” said Marcel Auermann, a travel writer for Heilbronner Stimme, a 100,000-circulation newspaper in Germany.
The conclusion is no surprise to David Wade, the former managing director of UK-based Arena Travel, who first visited Tupelo in 1972.
“It’s the best America has to offer,” he said during a reception Thursday night at the CVB.
“Over the years”, he said some of the participants on his tours didn’t want to visit Tupelo as part of the trip, but “when they come here, they fall in love with the people, the birthplace.”
The birthplace has developed over the years in a way that is “classy, not cheap and not commercialized,” he said.
It’s a good distinction from the glitz at Graceland and a strong draw for European tourists, Wade said.
Daisy Leitch
The Oldie
Driving to Graceland through Memphis along Elvis Presley Bou¬levard, the overwhelming impression is how run-down everything seems. But once you see Elvis’s mansion, with its Corinthian columns and grand façade, you forget the shabby suburbs. The contrast with the shack in Tupelo couldn’t be starker. Grace¬land is infamous for its outlandish design statements, like the hopelessly impractical fifteen-foot-long white sofa in the living room, or the indoor waterfall in the Jungle Room.
Graceland is an enormously com¬mercial place, but despite the tacki¬ness, it still felt like a family home – the King moved his parents in with him in 1957. The heart of the house is the large and homely kitchen, where Elvis cooked up his deep-fried peanut butter sandwiches. Finally, the tour takes you to the Meditation Garden where Elvis, Gladys, Vernon and Elvis’s grandmother are all buried together.
There’s so much else to see and do in Memphis. The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated, is informative and moving. And Stax Records, the soul studio where the likes of Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding recorded, is a hoot.
You can book an Elvis Tour through Arena Travel.
