International visitors tour Selma, Montgomery

Published 3:09 pm Friday, November 30, 2018

A group of visitors from all over the world stopped into the Queen City Friday to take in the local history before moving on to Montgomery and other locations.

The international contingent, hailing from Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands, was part of a “Fam” Tour meant to give international tour operators the opportunity to become better acquainted with the locales their customers might visit.

The Alabama Tourism Department has representatives in all of these nations tasked with attracting international visitors to the Deep South

Tahnee Perkins (left) and Jodie Collins posed for a photo along the Edmund Pettus Bridge Friday.

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and providing tour operators with the information required to ensure that those visitors know about all of the sights available to them in the various cities they visit.

“It’s great to come and actually see the places we send our customers to,” said John Bowden of Swansea in South Wales. “It’s been a great experience.”

The group of more than 20 international visitors started their Southern voyage in Nashville, where they took part in the Travel South International Showcase, a conference and trade show for international representatives of the 12 Southern states included in the organization.

From there, they traveled to Muscle Shoals before making their way to Selma.

The group had lunch at the historic White Forest Cottage before shuttling down to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Though running behind schedule, the group took the time to take photographs and walk across the bridge, relishing in the history it represented.

“There’s so much history here and so much interest in the Civil Rights movement back in the UK,” said Andy Facer of Cambridge.

Facer appreciated the opportunity to visit Selma for his second time, noting the opportunity it provided for him and the others to gain a better understanding of the history the town represents.

After traversing the bridge, the group was loading up to head to Montgomery before traveling onward to Birmingham and Huntsville.