ALL ABOARD FOR TOURISM

Although Cape Girardeau has neither an amusement park nor a zoo, it's still a popular tourist stop for visitors to Missouri. With its antique shops, history and regional attractions like the Mississippi River, Cape Girardeau is a popular getaway destination.

Whether it's a bus tour of 50 people or a family just passing through, Cape Girardeau benefits from the tourism industry.

"There are millions of people who travel because of work and there are millions who work because of travel," said Mary Miller, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

One bus company made 64 stops in the city during a single year, she said. Each stop meant visitors stayed overnight, ate meals or bought souvenirs in the area, thus creating local jobs and boosting the economy.

Tourism is the world's largest employer and the second largest industry in Missouri. More than 800 people in Cape Girardeau have tourism-related jobs. Across the state, 11 percent of all jobs are travel and tourism-related.

But those jobs don't just include hotel and restaurant employees. "It's not just the big wage jobs," Miller said. "It's Mom and Pop places and independently owned businesses."

The city benefits seven times from a single tourism job, Miller said. Some of those benefits come from travelers who purchase goods and services that are not travel related.

Tourism can be anything that takes you away from your home environment, and that includes both business and pleasure trips. May was National Tourism Month.

Cape Girardeau has made a big business of treating pleasure-seekers during business stays. Conventions and group meetings fill the schedules at the A.C. Brase Arena Building and Show Me Center, and trends show a continuing increase.

"If we have the facilities, they will be utilized," Miller said. To accommodate the anticipated growth, the city is in the midst of a building project for the Osage Park Community Center.

The last big project, a $13.5 million multipurpose building called the Show Me Center, was completed in July 1987.

"We are only limited by our imaginations," Miller said. Who would have thought we could have Tina Turner or Bob Hope? We've even had a president at the Show Me Center."

Both the Show Me Center and Osage Park Community Center projects were funded by tourism dollars. The city levied a special 3 percent use tax for hotels and a 1 percent restaurant tax. The use-tax collections come from people who visit the city and don't put an extra burden on services like fire and police protection, Miller said.

But the burden comes in trying to sell the area to local residents, Miller said. "The public is the hardest to sell because of perceptions," she said, adding that residents don't often think of their hometown as a tourist stop.

Marketing for tourist attractions differs from marketing a product, but with a 9 percent increase it seems to be working.

The marketing dilemma is that visitors can't take the Mississippi River or Missouri Wall of Fame mural with them like they can a souvenir or other item.

"If you eat a hot dog, then it's gone, but the mural or the river is still there tomorrow if one person or 101 people see it," Miller said. "Tourism is a renewable resource."

Tourism is also a growing resource for Missouri. About 80 percent of the U.S. population is within a day's drive of Missouri, and people are looking for a quick weekend getaway, Miller said, adding that an increase is expected in the next 10 years.

"People aren't sitting down to plan a vacation to Disney World anymore," she said. "They just want a getaway weekend."

The CVB office provides information on local attractions, events and sites for people interested in visiting the area.

How Tourism Pays:

-- Missouri's second largest industry is tourism. Nearly 11 percent of all jobs in the state are related to the travel and tourism industry.

-- In 1994, travelers spent $9.9 billion in the state and generated about $968 million in taxes. The average traveler spends about $184 per day.

-- Those same travelers generated $40,870,969 for Cape Girardeau. Direct wages totaled $11,313,348.

-- Cape Girardeau County employs 836 people in the travel and tourism business.

-- The tourism industry grew 7.9 percent in Cape Girardeau County.

Average impact of 100 visitors per day in a United States community

Direct Impact

-- $1.294 million in retail and service industry sales.

-- $280,000 in wages and salaries.

-- 29 new travel industry jobs creating additional income for 23 households and 61 residents.

-- $95,000 in state and local tax revenue, enough to support 27 schoolchildren.

-- Two more retail or service establishments.

Multiplier effect

-- $2.459 million in business exports.

-- $647,000 in wages and salaries.

-- 67 new jobs providing income for 53 households and 142 residents.

-- $154,000 in state and local tax revenue, enough to support 44 schoolchildren.

-- Four more retail or service establishments.

Source: U.S. Travel Data Center and Economics Research Associates.