AREA TOURISM OFFICIALS SEND STATE STRONG MESSAGE

The Southeast Missouri tourism industry is sending some strong messages to the Missouri Division of Tourism:

Get tough with the state legislature.

Gear key advertising markets to include some Tennessee and Arkansas areas near the Southeast Missouri area.

"We came to Cape Girardeau to collect comments and ideas for future division programs, and we got them," said Majorie Beenders, director of the Missouri Division of Tourism. "That's the primary purpose of what we call our `Think Tank' discussions."

Beenders and Warren Wiethaupt, executive vice president of Glennon Advertising and Marketing, were keynote speakers during the Think Tank sessions held at the Holiday Inn Tuesday.

"Tourism is the second-leading industry in the state; only the manufacturing industry is larger," said Beenders. "The Missouri Division of Tourism's primary goal is to increase travel to our state and generate more jobs for Missourians.

"We're always working to attract new visitors, keep regular visitors coming back, and increase spending by tourists while they're in Missouri," she said. "This will generate new jobs and more revenue for the state and for local communities."

The state tourism department is operating this year on a reduced budget.

"We requested a $6.4 million budget," said Beenders. "Our budget has to go through the Department of Economic Development, then to the legislators and governor. This year, due to a tight state budget, our budget was trimmed to $5.1, which is less than our $5.6 million budget of a year ago."

"We need to tell our legislators what we need," said Dan Drury, a motel operator who attended the meeting. "You can bet that the manufacturing industry talks to them. With tourism being the No. 2 industry in the state, they (legislators) should listen to us."

Local tourism and chambers of commerce representatives urged the Missouri Division of Tourism to redistribute its advertising dollars to include Tennessee and Kentucky areas as advertising markets.

A number of participants in the meeting stressed that these markets, especially Memphis and Nashville, Tenn., and Little Rock, Ark., would be of great value to the Southeast Missouri area.

"We realize that these markets would not be of great value to western areas in Missouri," said Drury. "But markets like Tulsa, Cedar Rapids and some other markets have little value to our area. We should spread the advertising around."

Beenders agreed and said this would be a primary consideration when Think Tank ideas were discussed.

Beenders said the idea of using Missouri native John Goodman, a movie and television star, in advertising spots proved to be a good one. "We've had 130 percent increase in inquiries since we started using Goodman," said Beenders.

The state tourism division provides advertising programs for Missouri's 10 vacation regions. The advertising efforts within the state include a modest television schedule, monthly ads during the summer season in newspapers, and radio spots.

Among key television markets outside the state are Wichita and Tulsa, Peoria and Quad Cities of Illinois, and Nebraska and Iowa.

"And, we're going to definitely look into possibilities of advertising in the Tennessee and Arkansas markets," said Beenders.