Out of 13 counties, Athens-Limestone emerges on top
Published 9:30 am Saturday, August 3, 2024
- From left, Blake Williams, Pammie Jimmar, Stephanie Reynolds, Holly Hollman and Ronnie Marks pose for a picture during their trip to Tuscaloosa for their bid to host the 2025 AL-MS-TN Rural Conference in Athens-Limestone County.
The city of Athens and Limestone County have been selected as the host for the 2025 Alabama-Mississippi-Tennessee Rural Tourism Conference Oct. 20-22, 2025, at the Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives, officials have announced.
“We are so happy to host this — our tourism group will do a fantastic job with this event coming to us,” Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks told The News Courier. “We are really excited to be selected for this honor because it’s going to bring a lot of people to our great city and county.”
When the AL-MS-TN Rural Tourism Conference was announced to be hosted in Alabama in 2025, 13 eligible counties submitted an initial bid in May. After a screening process, Athens-Limestone County, Decatur-Morgan County and Guntersville-Marshall County were chosen as the top three bids.
Officials from each county traveled to Tuscaloosa for a final, in-person bid presentation to the planning committee for the Rural Tourism Conference July 26. Athens-Limestone County officials, including Marks and president of the Athens-Limestone Chamber of Commerce Pammie Jimmar,p pitched various options for the event venue, branding, dining and transportation.
“When we got the call, on Friday afternoon, that we had won the bid we were just so excited,” Jimmar said. “It takes a team of our community partners to be able to put on an event like this, and it’s going to take all of us as a family to showcase our amazing Ssouthern charm and hospitality.”
The conference bid was a collaborative effort between the Limestone County Tourism Association, Athens-Limestone Chamber of Commerce, Limestone County Economic Development Association and Athens Main Street.
In the span of the AL-MS-TN Rural Tourism Conference’s 24 year history, the annual event has aimed to provide the very best educational experience possible for tourism practitioners in the region. The 2025 conference is guaranteed to bring increased exposure and revenue for the hotels, restaurants and other local businesses in Athens-Limestone County.
Conference preparation is set to begin in early January 2025, with pre-conference tour options — for the myriad tourism professionals who will be in attendance — available Oct. 19, 2025.
For more information, call the Athens-Limestone Chamber of Commerce at 256-232-2600.
