Tour offers a good look at Nac

Pictured is a colorful spot in the SFA Arboretum, one of the stops on the tour scheduled for May 13.

Residents of the oldest town in Texas are invited to join the CVB in discovering how SFA and nature tourism benefit the community on Tuesday, May 13. Home to Texas’ largest Azalea Garden, fantastic birding sites, and gorgeous nature trails, nature tourism is playing a bigger and bigger role in the way Nacogdoches attracts tourists.

The Nacogdoches Convention & Visitors Bureau and the SFA Mast Arboretum are hosting the tour in honor of National Tourism Week and Preservation Month. A bus will depart the CVB at 9 a.m. the day of the tour and return at 2:15 p.m. Cost is $10 per person and includes lunch at the Children’s Garden Pavilion on SFA’s campus. “This will be a fantastic tour that will highlight tourism and Stephen F. Austin State University,” said Sherri Skeeters, assistant director of the CVB.

Stops at the Colombia Regional Geospatial Service Center, Pineywoods Native Plant Center, SFA Mast Arboretum and the Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden are all included on the tour. Tour participants will be transported by an SFA Charter bus all day, but are still encouraged to wear comfortable shoes while perusing the 40-acres of the Native Plant Center or the 19-acre Arboretum.

Throughout May, the National Trust and its thousands of partners across the country will demonstrate the importance of our nation's heritage as they focus on many aspects of the preservation movement including historic travel, heritage education, historic homeownership, and community revitalization.

“Tourism & Preservation are extremely important in maintaining a healthy local economy and the excellent quality of life we enjoy in Nacogdoches,” said CVB Executive Director Melissa Sanford. “We hope this tour will give our local residents a new appreciation for some of our unique landmarks and a better understanding of the role travel and tourism plays and SFA play in our community.”

For more information about the tour or to make a reservation, contact the CVB at 936-564-7351.