Business of travel

Planning a sports tournament, hosting a craft fair during the holidays or even inviting riverboat visitors to tour downtown helps boost tourism in Cape Girardeau and throughout Southeast Missouri.

Chuck Martin, director of the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau, says the key is to get visitors to the city once and then entice them to return multiple times.

"I've had many people who said they were here for a weekend and wanted to come back to experience the area," Martin said.

The goal is to market Cape Girardeau as the hub for people interested in short day-trips throughout the region.

And the city's investment in a tourism marketing campaign and promotional pamphlet might already be paying off. The number of visitor inquires from July to October 2004 was 2,365 as compared to 433 inquiries for the same period in 2003.

From a single ad in "Midwest Living" magazine, the city had nearly 800 inquiries for tourism information, Martin said. "The question is are they coming?"

And a survey is in the works to track just that.

Tracking exactly who visits the city is difficult because each hotel keeps its numbers independent of the city, he said.

But visitors are coming. Martin said several organizers of sports tournaments already are booking space at hotels in the city. The Harley Owners Group will bring its rally back to Cape Girardeau in September and two other convention groups are booking meeting space. Those are in addition to the usual stops riverboats make and other summer travelers expected to visit the region.

Cape Girardeau isn't the only place seeing a growing number of visitors. Missouri's tourism industry reached record levels during 2004, according to an economic impact study by the University of Missouri-Columbia.

More than 37.7 million domestic visitors came to the Show Me State in 2004, an increase of 8.7 percent. The number of both leisure and business travelers showed an increase.

And those travelers spent $13.4 billion dollars during the past year, which had a ripple effect on Missouri's economy.

It's hard to pinpoint how much visitors to Cape Girardeau impact the local economy, since much of the city's revenue is tied to sales and restaurant taxes, which everyone pays.

In the 2003-2004 fiscal year, the city budgeted $340,000 for the hotel/motel tax and another $810,000 for the restaurant tax. The numbers were down for the hotel/motel tax but up by nearly $20,000 for the restaurant tax.

The city netted nearly $100,000 more than what was budgeted in 2003-04 from the previous year's hotel/motel tax. John Richbourg, finance director for the city, said the Holiday Inn closing was what created the difference. A new Holiday Inn Express under construction will take the place of the Holiday Inn. The new hotel is now taking reservations for its upcoming fall opening.

The hotel/motel tax supports the work of the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau and represents about 1 percent of the general fund budget for the city. Without that, the city likely would lose its tourism office but the greater impact comes through the sales tax revenue, Richbourg said.

People aren't always aware of how much of an impact visitors make in the city, Martin said. Restaurants and hotels are obvious benefactors, but there are plenty of places visitors stop, from antique shops to bookstores.

"Without the sales tax, life would be very different," Richbourg said.

So the CVB continues to lure visitors to stop in Cape Girardeau and visit the River Heritage region, where there are dozens of short day-trips available.

Visitors who like natural areas can visit Cape Rock Park, the Bollinger Mill and Trail of Tears State Park. For people who like history, there are museums and historic homes like the Oliver House in Jackson and the Glenn House in Cape Girardeau. The Red House Interpretive Center also offers an abundance of historical information about Cape Girardeau's founding.

Residents sometimes "take for granted some of the things that catches people's attention," Martin said.