Forging Alliances: Ozark Mountain Partnership focuses on regional tourism

Separated by less than 50 miles, a trio of tourism-driven organizations in Springfield and Branson have formed an alliance with the intent of drawing more visitors to the Ozarks.

The Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau Inc. and Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce & Convention and Visitors Bureau, along with Herschend Family Entertainment Corp., owner of Silver Dollar City, among other attractions, have teamed up on a regional collaboration dubbed the Ozark Mountain Partnership.

“With all the development that has occurred here and in Branson, it makes a lot of sense to be marketing the region. They see that as well,” says Tracy Kimberlin, Springfield CVB president and CEO, in reference to his counterparts in Branson.

The partnership’s campaign, which officials refer to as “This is the Ozarks,” started last fall as the participants invested in promotional billboard advertisements in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Kansas City was added as the third city for the campaign this year.

“It really highlights the beauty of the Ozarks and getting away from the traditional look at just the tourism component and more of what the natural landscape has to offer,” says Jason Outman, president and CEO of the Branson chamber and CVB.

Kimberlin says the billboards have a common message of enjoying the Ozarks but feature photography of all the partners. Megan Buchbinder, Springfield CVB’s marketing director, says 20 billboards are posted among the three markets and will remain in place through mid-December. It’s part of a $600,000 campaign the partnership has invested in over the past two fiscal years.

The three partners each invested $50,000 last year for the campaign, Kimberlin says. Their commitments were tripled to $150,000 apiece this year as the billboard count grew and the agencies began work to develop a website as a digital marketing component. Officials say the website, ThisIsTheOzarks.com, is still under development with hopes to launch by mid-October.

“It’s really showcasing what the Ozarks truly are,” Buchbinder says of the upcoming website. “It’s not just about coming to Springfield but to the whole Ozarks region.”

The Ozark Mountain Partnership is one of several cooperative marketing campaigns the Springfield CVB undertakes annually, Buchbinder says, noting others are traditionally done with the Springfield Cardinals, Bass Pro Shops and Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium.

“We take that out of our advertising dollars that we put aside for cooperative marketing,” she says, noting an expansion of the partnership is desired.

To that end, Outman says his office has been in conversation with the Bentonville Convention & Visitors Bureau in northwest Arkansas to promote the Ozarks as a destination. That’s led to a verbal commitment but details, including the financial component, are still to be determined.

Buchbinder says the $150,000 each party spent this year could increase – particularly if Arkansas gets involved.

“It will be the same, if not more, but we have not met to discuss our budgets yet,” she says.

The Springfield CVB has long promoted attractions such as Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield and Fantastic Caverns, both of which are outside city limits but regularly draw out-of-town visitors, Kimberlin says.

“Even though we haven’t had an official partnership with other organizations, we have thought regionally for a long time,” he says.

Teaming up with Branson and a major themed-entertainment company is a logical step to reach travelers, Kimberlin says. He says Bass Pro also has been approached to join the partnership but is noncommittal at this point.

“Tourists don’t recognize political boundaries. They don’t care when they cross the state line,” Kimberlin says. “They don’t care when they leave the city limits of Springfield and enter the city limits of Branson. They look at it as a region. That’s why we’re marketing it as the Ozarks.

“We don’t want our partners to think about (boundaries) either.”

Tourism gains
Coming off a record year for tourism tax revenue, Branson isn’t far off the pace in 2022. According to city data, the tax revenue finished 2021 at nearly $16.9 million, over 24% more than the all-time high reached in 2018. Through July – the most recent data this year – Branson’s tourism tax collections are at $8.4 million.

Citing data from Springfield-based firm H2R Market Research, Outman says visitation is just over 5.5 million through July, down only 1.4% from a year prior.

“If you look at the record year we had in 2021 and we’re really only down 81,000 visitors, that’s tremendous,” he says. “We’re not only pleasantly surprised but excited with the facts that even in the midst of consumer confidence being down because of high gas prices, recession talk and inflation, the fact that we’ve been able to prosper regardless of that really shows the strength of the brand and the offerings here in Branson.”

In Springfield, Kimberlin says the CVB monitors hotel occupancy as a key measure of tourism. The Queen City’s occupancy rate through July is 65.4%, identical to the mark in 2021 over the first seven months, according to hospitality data analytics firm STR Inc. The rate outpaces Kansas City and St. Louis, as well as state and U.S. hotel occupancy figures.

“There was a huge pent-up demand for leisure travel after the pandemic and we hit the market with a large advertising campaign that started in the fall of 2020 and continued through the summer of 2021,” Kimberlin says. “We spent roughly $2.5 million during that time frame to try and jump start travel because we were in the marketplace when other destinations weren’t advertising. As a result, we started seeing our demand surge ahead of the other cities in the state and the national average.”

Southern addition
Next up, the campaign partners are looking south to Arkansas.

“We know northwest Arkansas is a major feeder,” Outman says. “People from Branson and Springfield both go to northwest Arkansas. We really are providing visitors to these destinations.”

Much like Branson and Springfield, tourism data is showing growth in the Natural State. The 2% Arkansas tourism tax collected a record-setting $20.5 million in 2021. However, that revenue record may be short-lived as the tax already has accrued $11.7 million through June, a 24% increase over this time last year.

Outman says Arkansas officials, including those at the state Division of Tourism and the Bentonville CVB, likely will make a final decision on the partnership in the coming weeks as the entities get through their annual budgeting process. If they do join, he says the Ozarks promotion campaign will probably expand by next spring. The partnership may then add more cities to its target markets and go beyond billboard and website opportunities and integrate other digital marketing options.

“We would like to see the partnership grow over time and there’s a lot of potential for that,” Kimberlin says.

Outman agrees.

“We’re wanting to really expand the horizon of what we’ve been able to do just with Springfield and Silver Dollar City, and really market a much larger Ozarks region, expanding into Arkansas,” he says. “With each of the entities paying into this, it gives us an opportunity to broaden and expand the advertising that’s going out.”