The parking lots at Selma’s fast food restaurants, hotels and merchants are a little more crowded this week thanks to the crowds who have come to town for the Dixie Majors state baseball tournament.

It is these crowds — these visitors to Selma and Dallas County — who are making the investment made by the city of Selma to host the tournament a very smart decision.

“It definitely boosts the local economy,” said Selma-Dallas County Chamber of Commerce director Sheryl Smedley. “Our city and county thrive on tax dollars and this type of event brings with it the need for hotel lodging and gas and dinner. Also, it may be the first time some of these people are here visiting Selma and they can get their own personal view.”

It’s not the first tournament Selma has hosted this year.

With two district tournaments held last week which also had good attendance, the unseen dollars can really begin to add up.

“You have the obvious necessities like food,” Smedley said. “But there are also cases, like Saturday when teams aren’t playing but want to stay out of the heat and they may have heard about attractions like the Old Depot, the Vaughn-Smtherman, or Sturdivant and want to visit.

Even the people who have been to Selma before have new places to visit like the Interpretive Center, which hasn’t been there very long.”

An even greater boost, Smedley said, is the guests of tournaments take their experience of the city back to their hometowns.

“People will get that positive experience and take it back and spread good news about Selma,” she said.