Kinney Ferris named president-elect of Mississippi Tourism Association

Kinney Ferris has been named president-elect of the Mississippi Tourism Association, a one-year role that began July 1 and puts the Visit Oxford executive director on track to become association president in July 2027. For Oxford and Lafayette County, the appointment matters well beyond the title: Ferris will have a direct hand in statewide tourism conversations that influence where visitors go, how long they stay and which destinations get promoted.

That reach comes as Oxford’s visitor economy is already built on a tight cluster of local draws. Visit Oxford says the city has more than 60 restaurants, including two James Beard award-winning chef-owned spots, and that most visitors stay two to three days. The city’s core attractions include downtown Oxford, Rowan Oak, Square Books and the Ole Miss campus, with football weekends, seasonal events and year-round cultural stops helping fill hotel rooms and drive spending downtown.

The Oxford Chamber of Commerce describes Oxford as a vibrant university town about 70 miles southeast of Memphis, with shops, galleries, restaurants, clubs, historic landmarks and inns that draw travelers beyond game days. That mix is what makes Ferris’s new post potentially significant for Lafayette County: statewide tourism priorities around workforce development, hospitality collaboration and attraction marketing can spill directly into local bookings, event recruitment and restaurant traffic.

Ferris’s credentials help explain why she rose into the association’s leadership. She received the Mississippi Tourism Association’s Member of the Year Award in 2024 and recently earned the Certified Destination Management Executive designation from Destinations International, which said 63 industry leaders received the credential in 2025. Visit Oxford was also recognized by the tourism association in 2024 for Best Overall Digital Media, and the organization won Destination Marketing Organization of the Year and Large Festival of the Year for Double Decker Arts Festival in 2023.

Ferris has been with Visit Oxford since 2009, became deputy director in 2017 and was named executive director in 2019. A University of Mississippi graduate in hospitality management, she started her career in events in Tupelo. Her new statewide role arrives as the Mississippi Tourism Association says its board is focused on improving the guest experience through workforce development and collaboration across hotels, restaurants, entertainment and attractions, a priority that lines up closely with Oxford’s own tourism economy. A July 2026 association release named Paige Hunt of Visit Starkville as president for 2026-2027, showing the leadership ladder continues to rotate each year even as Ferris moves into the top tier.