Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Bill Seratt is the latest inductee of the Mississippi Tourism Hall of Fame.

Along with two others, Seratt was chosen as a 2010 inductee for his career in tourism promotion and his work with the VCVB since taking over as director in April 2007. He was honored with an induction ceremony during the Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Tupelo on March 1.

“It’s pretty humbling to get a standing ovation like that from your peers,” Seratt said of the ceremony, where he was presented a handcrafted award made by Mississippi artist Helene Fielder. “I’m just humbled to have been selected to join this prestigious group of people in the Hall of Fame.”

The tourism hall of fame was created in 2002. New inductees are selected every other year. A total of 19 Mississippians are now in the hall of fame, including Lenore Barkley, who retired in 2003 after directing the VCVB for 28 years. Barkley was among five tourism leaders inducted into the inaugural Hall of Fame class in 2002.

Other 2010 inductees are Bill Holmes, executive director of the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center; and Linda Butler Johnson, executive director of the Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“Bill Holmes, Linda Butler Johnson and Bill Seratt represent all that is special about the tourism industry in Mississippi: a spirt of commitment and dedication and a genuine love for the state we all work so hard to promote to the world,” said Mary Beth Wilkerson, MDA Tourism Director. 

Seratt came to Vicksburg from his native Greenville, where he had served as director of the Greenville-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau for 11 years and helped found the Mississippi Delta Tourism Association. He is a past president of the Mississippi Tourism Association, and currently serves as a board member of the Mississippi Blues Commission and Mississippi Blues Foundation. He is also chairman of the Mississippi Sesquicentennial Commission and president of the Mississippi River Parkway Commission.