County nod gives CVB path to grants

Cape Girardeau County commissioners have endorsed a plan to fund a destination marketing organization.

One already exists.

John Mehner, Cape Girar-deau's Chamber of Commerce president, said Friday that Cape Girardeau's Convention and Visitors Bureau fits the bill. The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce operates the CVB under a contract with the city.

"It used to be that a destination marketing organization had to be so deemed by the closest governmental entity in which it was housed; for instance, ours is in the city of Cape Girardeau," he said. "Our Convention and Visitors Bureau is the local destination marketing organization that meets all the qualifications."

He said Blaine Luetkemeyer, director of Missouri Division of Tourism, is pressing local bureaus to promote wider areas.

"He wants counties to do the designations and make sure the DMOs promote things a little more regionally," he said. "But we promote Trail of Tears State Park, Bollinger Mill, the train, winery tours. Instead of us going to the city for DMO designation, we had to go to the county."

With the commissioners' nod, Mehner said, the CVB can pursue state grants of up to $50,000. The money would be used for marketing and tourism promotion.

"But it's a 50-50 [matching] grant," he said. "We have to submit an annual plan and report, month by month, how we're going to use the money."

He said the application process would start as soon as he received formal word of the county commission's approval.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127