Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1436811
B M & T ••• November/December 2021 ••• www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 19 My biggest role is enhancing tourism in Yazoo County. We want to try to attract a visitor or a group. We can host small meetings." Finley, 45, a Chicago native, moved to her mother's home- town of Yazoo when she was 16. She got into the hospitality/tourism industry quite "by accident," but took to it quite easily. She was fresh out of college having worked in retail and waitressing. When she began at the Yazoo CVB as an assistant director, her job was to greet visitors and disseminate information while creating itineraries for tour groups. "I was out of col- lege and looking for a job," said Finley, a divorced mother of a 13-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son. "It was by acci- dent. I was introduced to the CVB director and I told her my background and she was looking for someone with a similar background. It happened quite by accident. I didn't even know Yazoo had a CVB. When I started working there, my creative juices started working overtime." Before taking the position, Finley had worked under two executive directors over a 16-year period. "I asked myself whether I wanted to take the role," she said. "I knew I was ready to move forward and implement my own ideas that the commu- nity would enjoy. I created a program to help different individ- uals in the community that had an interest in creating a commu- nity event. Today it's called The Events Sponsorship Program. While that program is successful, Finley's main priority is tourism. The Yazoo CVB can host a group of 600-800 indoors. There are 227 hotel rooms. "We need more hotels," said Finley who sits on the board of the Gateway Community Development Corporation and is affiliated with the Mississippi Tourism Association, the Southeast Tourism Society, and is the vice president of the Mississippi Delta Tourism Association. "There are five hotels here. Some groups that have held a convention in the county include the Scrabble Tournament Club, agricultural groups, Black Mayors Association, and job fairs. Tourism has been slow since the pandemic, but Finley believes the county will make a comeback. "It's starting to pick up," said Finley. "We had a decline in indoor meeting space. We were cut off. Our tourism dollars were down, but after some time it has started to pick up. Some of our hotels held on, some of our restaurants closed and others picked up. It's really starting to grow." Yazoo County has a number of attractions. Finley said it doesn't take much to convince people to come. Visitors can check out the Town Center Historic District, a city block called The Triangle, Broadway hill, Wolf Lake, Yazoo River Bridge at Satartia, Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, and more. The area also has the oldest authentic juke joint, the Blue Front Café, which hosts an annual festival. The owner was recently nominated for a Grammy. There is also an annual Yazoo Music Festival. Yazoo County is also home to five Mississippi Blues Trail Markers and additional historic sites. "We get people from all over the world," said Finley. "We have our share of international visitors from Japan, Europe, Norway, and Switzerland. We also get a lot of Blues enthusi- asts. We also have a thriving downtown area. It's unique and colorful and has some historic architecture. We also have a cemetery tour and the oldest county fair in the state and deli- cious food from our 30 local restaurants. And legend has it, there is a Witch of Yazoo." Finley's strategy for re-launching the hospitality/travel industry in her area post-COVID is to watch the numbers. "Our vaccination numbers are not as high as we'd like them to be," she said. "We don't want people to be hurt or be a liability." Finley, who started a nonprofit called The Hive Connection to bring entrepreneurs together through net- working, said it's hard to judge when to open fully. "With these numbers constantly rising and then winter coming, a lot has been pushed back," she said. "To be honest, there is no timetable to move forward but we're looking forward to it." In the meantime, Finley continues to make her mark as one of only 11 Blacks heading up CVBs out of about 700 CVBs. Not surprisingly, Finley is so humble about her suc- cess that she's unaware of being in the enviable position of having overcome the challenges of being Black and a woman in an industry with very little diversity in the C-suite. "The fact that there aren't a significant number of us is dis- heartening," said Finley. "Tough times don't last, tough peo- ple, do. I'm a Black woman, so I try to have a thick skin about things that come up. When challenges arise, I try to be a prob- lem solver. I continue to move forward because I have faith." Finley said as a Black woman, she frequently comes up against situations where she has to prove she knows what she's doing and what she's talking about. "Yes, sometimes we have to prove it," said Finley. "That's a lot of it. Well, I know what I'm talking about. I'm here to make this community bet- ter. Once people find out I'm serious, they back off." When she's not hard at work promoting Yazoo County, Finley likes to cruise, travel to Orlando, FL, listen to Marvin Gaye, the Blues, some Hip Hop, and read books. 'The Color Purple' is her favorite because she said, "I love the resilience of Black women. We go through a whole lot. We always come out victorious."