Vicksburg’s inclusion in a Mississippi tourism promotion campaign should reach nearly 2 million travelers in the air and on land before the month is out, state and local tourism officials said Monday.

Full-page ads depicting Mississippi artist Wyatt Waters applying a soft, scenic touch to the U.S. 80 bridge across the Mississippi River have appeared in Sky and Vacations magazines this month. Throughout the year, the ad has run inside 2008 Mississippi Tour Guides available at Mississippi Welcome Center locations and various local visitors bureaus.

“It’s great exposure,” Mississippi Development Authority director of tourism development Craig Ray said, adding the campaign — dubbed Follow Your Passion — focuses on Mississippi’s heritage and culture. “We’ve had great feedback from it,” Ray said.

Circulation of the ad in Sky, the in-flight publication of Delta Airlines, is expected to reach 450,000 readers, on top of about 400,000 copies of the state tour guides, Ray said. Vacations, a planning guide for getaways worldwide, has about 1 million readers, according to its Web site.

Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director Bill Seratt said arts and entertainment tourism can only be enhanced by the ad effort.

“I’m thrilled and delighted they are featuring Vicksburg in the state campaign,” Seratt said.

Previous ads in this year’s campaign have featured other tourist stops brought to life by Waters’ art, including historic Oxford Square and locales along the Mississippi Blues Trail. 

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com.