CVB: Summer convention to bring $2.3M impact

An estimated 9,000 visitors will converge on Springfield this summer for the annual District Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau said two weekend conventions – featuring educational and spiritual meetings at Missouri State University’s JQH Arena – are expected to bring $2.25 million to the Queen City, according to a news release.

Slated June 20-23 for Spanish-speaking members and July 4-7 for English speakers, the CVB estimates the two three-day stays would generate nearly $84,000 in city sales and hotel taxes, $28,000 in county taxes and $207,000 in state sales taxes.

“We are pleased the Jehovah’s Witnesses selected Springfield for their conventions,” CVB President Tracy Kimberlin said in the release. “We have been working with these groups for about two years and are delighted to bring these events to fruition.”

Kimberlin said Jehovah’s Witnesses host a number of annual conventions – sometimes as many as five weekends in the same city – and the CVB is working to bring similar events with the group to Springfield during the next five years. He noted the 2013 conventions will help fill hotel rooms during the traditionally quiet Fourth of July weekend.

“Springfield is a city with great convention potential,” said Dan Fundyk, Jehovah’s Witnesses convention manager, in the release. “The cooperative spirit with lodging officials and the effort by CVB officials and JQH Arena management certainly gave good reason for Jehovah’s Witnesses to bring conventions here this summer. We see this as a benefit to us and the Springfield community as well. We hope to have conventions here for some years to come.”