I never thought we could possible sell more copies of The Help but just when the movie was about to premier in Mississippi, the fever for The Help caught again. And then I found myself on the phone with my mom, my granny and my aunt, all of whom I had given a copy of The Help when it first came out. They had just been to see The Help together in Texas. So it brought back the experience we all had of reading the book at the same time.

And today I am reading a professional book industry publication and I see this headline: “The Help Boosts Mississippi Tourism.” Well, I guess I should have known this was coming: Jackson offers two self-guided tours, one for Jackson and one for Belhaven. And Greenwood has seen an increase in demand for tours.

Can you believe that Bill Crump, chairman of the the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Industrial Foundation, projects that The Help tourism should generate $13 million in revenue for the state? When Lemurians first began reading The Help before its release, we read with great discussion but I do not think any of us imagined the fever that would spread world-wide, selling well over 2 million copies and with translation into more than 40 languages.

Read the full article from Shelf  Awareness below. (Shelf Awareness is a publication for book industry professionals and everyday book lovers. Click here to read their entire daily newsletter.)

The movie based on Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling novel, The Help, has been in theaters less than two weeks, but “tourism agencies in Greenwood and Jackson have rolled out self-guided driving tours targeting book and movie fans,” the Clarion-Ledger reported.

Marika Cackett, a spokeswoman for Jackson’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the city currently offers a pair of self-guided tours–The Help in Belhaven Neighborhood Driving Tour and The Help in Jackson Driving Tour.

“People read the book, see the movie, then Google Jackson, Mississippi,” Cackett said. “It’s cool to say we’ve been in a motion picture, and the residual effects from this could be a very good thing.”

Most of the film was shot in Greenwood, where CVB executive director Paige Hunt noted that tour requests from groups and individuals have risen dramatically.

“We plan to have the tour indefinitely,” she said, citing the Steel Magnolias tour in Natchitoches, La., as the reason her group began planning for this in May 2010, after learning The Help would be shot locally. “Steel Magnolias was released in 1989, and the tours are still around.”

Hunt added that she had recently received a call “from a lady in Louisiana who is coming here with some girlfriends for a weekend getaway. They’re not just doing The Help tour. They’re taking a class at Viking Cooking School and exploring what Greenwood has to offer. The movie has brought a lot of excitement to our community.” Greenwood is also home of the elegant TurnRow Book Co. bookstore, which opened in 2006 (Shelf Awareness, October 3, 2006).

Bill Crump, chairman of the the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Industrial Foundation, told the Clarion-Ledger he estimates that the direct economic contribution to the area will be $13 million.

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