NEW ON THE BUSINESS SCENE: BRANSON ENJOYS RANKING AMONG TOP TOURIST ATTRACTIONS

The small Southwest Missouri Ozarks community of Branson, population 3,700, is suddenly the place to go, ranking right up there with Disney World, Yellowstone National Park, and Washington, D.C.

"Branson is now one of the top five tourist destinations in the nation," said Mike Wright in the public affairs department of the American Automobile Association (AAA), which recently compiled its annual tourist destination list for the summer.

The top five list, according to Wright, were Orlando, Fla., and its Disney World attraction; Branson, home of an ever-growing country music complex and Silver Dollar City, an Ozarks regional theme park; Yellowstone National Park; Washington, D.C.; and the Los Angeles-Anaheim area.

A lot of Missouri roads lead to Branson during the scorching summer months.

Traffic jams stretching as far as five miles and long lines are common occurrences in this small community as its tourism population explodes to more than 100,000.

The popularity of Silver Dollar City and surrounding lakes have always attracted visitors, but with the new explosion of entertainment theaters in the area more than four million people visited the small Ozarks resort town last year alone.

Today, entertainers with their own Branson theaters or regular guests include Box Car Willie, Moe Bandy, Mickey Gilley, the Gatlin Brothers, Johnny Cash, Cristy Lane, Loretta Lynn, Wayne Newton, Ray Stevens, Jim Stafford and may others.

All of this is good news for the Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri area.

"A lot of roads leading to Branson pass through Cape Girardeau," said Lyn Muzzy, director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB).

One of the highlight tourist attractions for Missouri and the nation is the new country music boom at Branson, said Muzzy. "It's a hot spot," he said. "And this helps all areas of the state."

Branson is attracting numerous motor coach tours, many of which pass through Cape Girardeau, said Muzzy.

"With 80 million people living within a day's drive of Missouri there's a big potential market for the music attractions at Branson," said Muzzy. "A lot of that potential market will pass through and stop in the Cape Girardeau area."

Branson can't build new roads fast enough, said John C. Bowers, executive manager of the town's Chamber of Commerce, which is appealing to state and national lawmakers for highway money while exploring mass transit alternatives, including moving sidewalks along the strip.

Branson granted more than $80 million in building permits last year, and an Arkansas developer hopes to add even more to the community development at Branson this year.

Larry Cooper, president of the Bella Vista operations for Cooper Communities Inc., said his company is working to get local, state and federal approval to allow development of a 3,100-acre tract west of Branson near Silver Dollar City.

Development plans call for single-family homes, estates, townhomes and condominiums. About $12 million in amenities is planned, including an 18-hole championship golf course.

New homes are planned in the $85,000 to $500,000 price range, while townhomes and condos would range from $90,000 to $170,000.

Cooper Communities is the developer of Bella Vista Village, Hot Springs Village and Cherokee Village, all in Arkansas; Tellico Lakes Village in Tennessee; and Savannah Lakes Village in South Carolina.

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It's noon Friday. You've taken care of all the loose ends at the office, and you're tooling along at 65 mph on Interstate 24 heading for Kentucky Lake.

Your family went over the day before, and you have a cabin on the lake. There's probably a cool one in the refrigerator.

You're listening to the Rush Limbaugh talk show.

All at once, the car engine just quits. Efforts to crank the engine fail.

What now? You're sitting on the Interstate somewhere between Paducah, Ky. and the Gilbertsville, Ky., exit, and you're certainly not happy.

Then you remember. You traded cars recently, and this is an Oldsmobile.

One of the "owner privileges" that came with the purchase of the car is a roadside service program. You never expected to use it, but here at this instant you're glad you have it. Picking up the cellular telephone, you dial the 1-800 number provided in the manual.

You explain your situation to a friendly voice on the line. Then you sit back and wait. It didn't take long for an Oldsmobile Roadside Service crew to arrive. A half-hour later you're on the road again.

The foregoing scenario may be fictitious but problems like this do happen every day tires go flat, belts break, batteries fail.

More and more automakers are going to the "roadside service system" since Cadillac introduced the program five years ago, in 1988,

Saturday is the busiest day of the week for most of the service centers. Advisers routinely handle 250 cases every Saturday because many dealerships and the majority of independent car repair shops are closed.

With Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Lincoln, and the F150 Ford pickup truck, the service is free.

"With Cadillacs and Oldsmobile, it's part of the warranty," said Joe Cox, general manager of Crown Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Nissan, 607 S. Kingshighway.

"Ditto, Lincoln and the F series trucks," said a spokesman from Ford Groves Motor Co. in Cape Girardeau.

The roadside service is optional on several other models.

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Goodies Family Clothing has revised its schedule for entering the Cape Girardeau market.

"We're looking at the first quarter of 1994," said William Marks, a spokesman for the Knoxville, Tenn.-based company.

Goodies had announced earlier they wanted to be here during the late third quarter of this year.

Goodies recently opened a store in University Place in Carbondale, Ill., that employs about 35 people.

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The Country Music Hall has reopened.

The weekend entertainment center, situated in East Cape Girardeau, Ill., for two years, has moved to Gordonville.

"We opened a week ago at Gordonville," said Elsie Williams, a partner in the operation. "We're located just south of the Route K-Route 25 T-intersection."

The center is open each Friday and Saturday from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

"We have an "open mike," said Williams. "Entertainers can come by and perform." The center has a five-piece, country, house band.

Six partners are involved in the operation Williams, Allen Hill, Bob and Donna Mathis and Bill and Juda Worley.