The Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau's office at 815 E. St. Louis St. is adopting a Route 66 theme to attract traveler interest.
Today, the Route 66 Tourist Information Center, which is in the lobby of the CVB office on the ground floor of the Jordan Valley Car Park, is finishing its installation of 15 window panels covered in graphics reflecting the heyday of Route 66. Erection of the 5-foot tall panels began on June 19. The graphics for the panels were designed in-house, and the panels were produced and installed by Springfield Blue Print.
Plans for the center in the Jordan Valley Car Park include remodeling the lobby with Route 66 décor and information. Costs of the renovations are roughly $3,675, according to CVB spokeswoman Susan Wade.
The move comes after the CVB announced June 21 it would close its tourist information center at 3315 E. Battlefield Road this fall due largely to declines in usage.
Wade said traffic at the Battlefield location peaked in 1992 at 81,729. Last year, the office served 15,768 visitors.
In its first full year of operation, the St. Louis Street center hosted 2,241 visitors, according to Wade. Last year, she said 649 stopped in to get information.
Wade attributed the downward trend in visitors to changes in the ways people seek tourist information.
“More people are using smart-phones, planning their travel using the Internet, and they're not using information centers as much as they used to,” Wade said.
Springfield was a stopping point for the iconic highway that stretched between Chicago and Los Angeles in the pre-Interstate era. The window panels are designed to attract the attentions of passersby, and the interior alterations are focused on enhancing the visitor experience.
“Part of what we’re doing here is trying to make it easier to spot. If you’ve driven by in the past, it is not always the easiest thing to see, so the graphics are designed to catch the eye,” Wade said. “Also, we are on Route 66 and there is not a Route 66 information center in Springfield. … Route 66 has not had a lot of good representation. Even though there is a lot of Route 66 memorabilia and locations people like to stop and look at, they don’t really have a place to stop and get information.”
The Battlefield Road information center is scheduled to close Oct. 31. The CVB also operates a third information center staffed by volunteers, which will remain open, at the Springfield-Branson National Airport.
The CVB had announced plans to relocate its Battlefield Road information center in 2007 to a site on East Chestnut Expressway after businessman and philanthropist Jim D. Morris sold the nearly one-acre spot to a nonprofit subsidy of the CVB for $250,000. The land had been appraised at $600,000. However, Wade said there are no current plans for that location.
“When the economy tanked, that project was put on hold. At this point, our board of directors are in a wait-and-see mode,” Wade said.
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
