River itself draws many tourists, their dollars to Cape

Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director Brenda Newbern was optimistic as she addressed attendees at the First Friday Coffee at Isle Casino Cape Girardeau.

With Friday being National Employee Appreciation Day, she began by thanking her staff, who help her in the CVB’s mission to promote Cape Girardeau for the purpose of economic development.

Put another way, she said, they want to “put heads in beds and seats in restaurants.”

Last year, she said, Missouri saw $16 billion in tourism revenue.

“Tourism is important, and it does matter,” she said.

Newbern said one of the most important tourism draws is riverboat tourism, with 16 scheduled dockings in Cape Girardeau this year.

They’re worth the hassle of coordinating, which includes making brochures, arranging tours and monitoring an unpredictable factor: the river itself.

Stacy Dohogne-Lane, the CVB’s director of public relations, said even riverboat companies don’t always realize how challenging the river can be.

One year, during flood season, she recalled the time a boat worker “asked if they could just put a gangplank on top of the floodwall,” to disembark.

The answer was no.

Cape Girardeau Mayor Harry Rediger said after the presentation during a recent conference in Washington, D.C., he spoke with an executive from American Queen riverboat company who said they’re selling out of Mississippi River cruises.

Rediger also made another tourism announcement.

“Viking [River Cruises] will be coming to the [Mississippi] River,” he said.

He later said while the company has committed to putting cruises on the river, it hasn’t begun building the boats necessary to do so.

Aside from riverboats, Lane said the CVB also focuses energy on luring drivers to Cape Girardeau by advertising in Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as Missouri itself. Half of Cape Girardeau’s tourists come from inside the state, she said.

The CVB combines online marketing, including social media, with print advertising in publications such as St. Louis magazine.

But the hardest sell, she said, can be residents who sometimes forget all Cape Girardeau has to offer.

“Sometimes we forget about the river in our backyard,” she said. “But it brings so many people to Cape Girardeau.”

Cape Girardeau has plenty of attractions, she said, which the CVB categorizes into “buckets.”

There’s the “family fun” bucket with Cape Splash and Discovery Playhouse, a “back in time” bucket with Crisp Museum, Fort D Historic Site and the Bollinger Mill State Historic Site, an “outdoors” bucket with the riverfront and Trail of Tears State Park and a “come play” bucket with adults-only attractions such the casino and wineries.

Alyssa Phares, CVB director of sales, said most people don’t realize how much a visiting tour group can add to the local economy. The average conference attendee spends $210 per day, she said. So when 300 delegates came to Cape Girardeau for a three-day Lutheran women’s conference last year, their estimated economic effect was $189,000, Phares said.

“Cape Girardeau really does have a great meetings market,” she said.

And sports teams can bring more money.

If a tournament with several age brackets can draw 2,250 people, she said, those visitors can add $337,500 to the local economy, based on average expected expenditures.

“Regionally we’re perfectly located,” she said, referring to the appeal for sports teams.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627