CVB Travel: CVB prepares for tourist season to bloom

Susan Wade is the public relations manager with the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Winter isn't officially over until March 20, but it already feels like spring at the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

That's because the winter slump is ending, and the spring travel season is beginning. Though travelers aren't exactly swarming the city yet, this is the time of year people begin making vacation plans and requesting information packets from the bureau.

Annually, the CVB mails about 60,000 packets that include an official visitors guide, hotel-motel coupon book, adventure savings passport and brochures or fliers from area businesses that pay a small fee for inclusion.

Adventure Savings Passports wallet-sized cards with discount offers from a variety of businesses, attractions and restaurants are new this year and replace the Adventure Savings Coupon Books the bureau previously published.

The 2004 Visitors Guide has more restaurant listings, events and information than in the past. The hotel-motel coupon books did not undergo significant changes this year.

Also new, the bureau will distribute information packets to people at the Tourist Information Center at 3315 E. Battlefield Road, said Laura Whisler, CVB communications coordinator. In the past, information packets were distributed only via mail.

The Tourist Information Center has information available from all over the state a requirement in order to have directional signage on U.S. Highway 65. However, the packets will focus their attention on Springfield area attractions and businesses.

It's also an added value for businesses participating in the packet program because it ensures their information isn't overlooked.

"It reaches more people," Whisler said. "People who requested packets already have information and aren't as likely to stop at the tourist information centers."

In the future, the program might be expanded to the information center at Springfield-Branson Regional Airport and the new information center in the lobby of the bureau's offices in the Jordan Valley Car Park.

The new information center is possible because of the bureau's move in February from offices in southeast Springfield to downtown offices.

"We want to provide an information center in the new offices because of the proximity to the Expo Center," said CVB Executive Director Tracy Kimberlin. "It's another way for the bureau to provide services to visitors."

It's also another way to draw visitors' attention to Springfield businesses and those participating in the bureau's Marketing Partnership Program for businesses outside city limits.

Unlike the center on East Battlefield Road, the downtown location will not have state directional signage so it will not have to carry statewide information. Instead, it will contain only information from Springfield businesses and CVB Marketing Partners.