Senate Tourism Committee, January 13, 2026
- Senator Lydia Chassaniol believes the measure will pass again this session and Governor Tate Reeves will support the legislation with the accompanying budget bills.
State Senator Lydia Chassaniol (R), chair of the Senate Tourism Committee, brought back a bill on Tuesday that aims to create a standalone Mississippi Department of Tourism.
“The bill is virtually the same thing that was passed last year,” Chassaniol told the committee of SB 2016. “It went through the Senate. It went through the House. Got to the governor’s office and didn’t get signed.”
During the 2025 session, the “Mississippi Tourism Reorganization Act” was vetoed by Governor Tate Reeves (R) due to the legislative wrangling over the state budget. Reeves said at the time that the bill as sent to him did not include the accompanying appropriations bills for either the Mississippi Development Authority or the would-be created Mississippi Department of Tourism.
The governor did state at the time of the veto that while he is “strongly opposed to enlarging the size of government by creating a new state agency and have tirelessly fought to shrink the size of government and not take one cent more from taxpayers than is absolutely necessary to fund the essential functions of government, if sufficient appropriations are provided to both MDA and the Mississippi Department of Tourism, I would allow this bill to become law.”
Senator Chassaniol believes the effort will pass again this session and Governor Reeves will support the legislation with the accompanying budget bills.
“The governor, of course, being a numbers person is not going to give us a blank check. I don’t give blank checks either, so I can understand his reservation,” Chassaniol said. “But this year we’ve got everything in order.”
Visit Mississippi shared in October 2025 that the state welcomed a record 44.2 million visitors in 2024, and those visitors generated $18.1 billion for the Magnolia State’s economy. Tourism’s total economic impact sustained 136,094 jobs, translating to 1-in-13 jobs in the state, while providing $4.6 billion in labor income for Mississippians, the 2024 Tourism Economic Contribution Report conducted by Tourism Economics stated.
In addition, visitor activity generated $2.2 billion in government revenues in 2024, with state and local taxes topping $1.1 billion. These dollars provide for additional investment in the education, infrastructure and public services for Mississippians.
The legislation passed the Senate Tourism Committee and will now be placed on the calendar to be taken up by the full Senate.
You can watch the full committee meeting below.
