Partnership to promote Springfield tourism

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A new program from the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau Area Marketing Partnerships will soon provide businesses outside the city limits an opportunity to tap into Springfield's growing tourism market.|ret||ret||tab|

Designed to pool available resources and allow marketing partners to be included in the bureau's publications, the program creates an opportunity for area businesses to join an overall marketing effort that, according to national market research firm D.K. Shifflet & Associates, brought approximately 2.2 million visitors to Springfield in 1999.|ret||ret||tab|

"A lot of businesses, especially the smaller ones, want tourism but don't have a resource such as a convention and visitors bureau at their disposal," said Melanie Earl, CVB communication coordinator. "The mission of the partnership program is to promote the Springfield area and assist participating businesses in capturing a portion of the tourism market."|ret||ret||tab|

Earl said the area marketing strategy is not a new idea, just another step toward creating a united, comprehensive travel destination. |ret||ret||tab|

Applications for the partnership program, approved by the CVB's board of directors at its July meeting, are now being accepted.|ret||ret||tab|

"Any business that gets involved in the next couple of months will get a little extra time for their annual partnership fee," Earl said. "We're rolling this out now for the 2001 calendar year."|ret||ret||tab|

Although partnerships will be open to interested area businesses, Earl said recruiting efforts would focus on Greene, Christian, Stone, Webster and Taney counties. But because the CVB is supported by Springfield's hotel-motel tax, Earl said hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts in Stone and Taney counties will not be eligible to participate in the program.|ret||ret||tab|

"Not every business can be approved," Earl said. "Applications will be reviewed and approved on an individual basis by our board of directors."|ret||ret||tab|

Costs associated with the program will vary with the size and type of business. Earl said hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts would pay a fee that includes a base rate and a per-room charge. All fees associated with the program will be used to increase the CVB's overall marketing budget.|ret||ret||tab|

To further stretch advertising dollars, Earl said the bureau is eligible to apply for cooperative dollars from the Missouri Division of Tourism. The combination of the CVB's marketing budget, partnership fees and matching dollars from the state, she said, would create a "powerful organization for marketing and advertising in national publications and on cable television."|ret||ret||tab|

Improved advertising is one of the advantages that John Haywood, owner of the Amish Country Inn Bed & Breakfast & Gift Shop in Seymour, hopes to gain from being one of the first to become a marketing partner.|ret||ret||tab|

Due to restrictions the bureau placed on hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts in the past, Haywood could only include the gift shop in CVB publications. Based on the results of that advertising, however, Haywood said he couldn't wait to have the bed and breakfast added.|ret||ret||tab|

"We got a tremendous response from listing the gift shop in the visitors guide," Haywood said. "We ask each person who comes in how they heard about us, and again and again it was through the convention and visitors bureau."|ret||ret||tab|

Haywood said the cost of the program was more than fair when weighed against some of the services area partners received: a 50 percent discount off the price of a listing in each of the 250,000 Springfield Area Visitors Guides distributed annually as well as 50 percent off the cost of a link on the CVB's Web site, which is averaging 400,000 hits per month so far this year.|ret||ret||tab|

"We spend a lot of money to market our business on the Internet," Haywood said. "This is an excellent investment. I wish it had been available in the past."|ret||ret||tab|

Mike Woody, director of sales for Silver Dollar City properties in Branson, said building a strong, defined business region around Springfield creates a greater sales opportunity. And, he added, "the stronger the CVB becomes in generating group, convention and individual travel, the better our opportunity to share in that attendance."|ret||ret||tab|

Woody said he has no way to estimate the increase in the number of visitors participation in the marketing partnership might bring, but added that the real strength of the partnership program is in the synergy of all the businesses working together.|ret||ret||tab|

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