Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/34521
tions. The choices include the Audubon Aquarium, the Audubon Zoo, the Audubon Insectarium, the Louisiana Children’sMuseum and Mardi Gras World. New Orleans is home to the nation’s oldest African-American neighborhood, Faubourg Treme, now made famous as the inspiration for the HBO television series. St. Augustine Catholic Church and the New Orleans African American Museum are two of the area’s major landmarks. The city’s premier meeting venue, the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, contains more than 1.1 million sq. ft. of contiguous exhibit space. SHREVEPORT/BOSSIER Shreveport and its neighbor across the Red River,Bossier City, offer visitors a wide range of attractions. Shreveport is home to a branch of the Southern University Museum ofArt that boasts an extensive collection of African art and artifacts. Other points of interest include the Stephens African AmericanMuseum, theMulticulturalCenter of the South andRiverView Park. Among the top attractions in Bossier City are the 8thAir Force Museum at Barksdale AFB and the Louisiana Boardwalk. The area’s largest meeting facility, the Shreveport-Bossier City Convention Center, containsmore than 350,000 sq. ft. of space. Savannah's premiermeeting facility is the 260,000-sq. ft.Savannah InternationalTrade&ConventionCenter.Meeting River view of downtown Shreveport planning ismade easier through a four-hotel cooperative known as the SavannahAccord.Member hotels, including the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa, the SavannahMarriott Riverfront, the Hyatt Regency Savannah and theHilton SavannahDeSoto, offer 1,383 guest rooms combined. MISSISSIPPI Themenu of recreational options in theMagnolia State includes canoeing onBearCreek inTishomingo State Park, hiking along theBlackCreek in theDeSotoNational Forest and fishing and dolphinwatching on Ship Island, just south ofGulfport. Gulfport’s top site formeetings and entertainment is the IslandViewCasinoResort,which includes a 562-roomhotel. Other local attractions include the CEC & Seabee Memorial Museum, the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center, the Gulfport SymphonyOrchestra and theArtsUnder theDome concert series at FirstUnitedMethodist Church. There are notableAfrican-American heritage sites throughout the state.Alongwith visiting stops on a growing list of destinations along theMississippiBluesTrail,you can retrace the steps of civil rightsworkers along theFreedomSummer Trail in Hattiesburg and tour a museum honoring journalist, civil rights and women’s rights advocate Ida B.Wells in Holly Springs. JACKSON Lovers ofmusic and historywill find plenty to grab their interests inMississippi’s capital and largest city.Visitors fly- ing into Jackson can check out the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame in Jackson/Evers InternationalAirport.The Black Meetings & Tourism May/June 2011: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 47 Another great New Orleans Festival you must attend Photo Credit: New Orleans CVB Photo Credit: Shereveport/Bossier CVB