TOURIST INTEREST INCREASING SAY OFFICIALS

Tourist interest in Cape Girardeau this year already is apparently showing an increase over 1990, says Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Lyn Muzzy.

By the end of April, tourism inquiries about Cape Girardeau had totalled about 1,100, Muzzy said. That compares to about 1,770 for all of 1990.

Muzzy disclosed the figures to about 90 people at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee gathering.

"That's very exciting to me," he told the group. "It means something is working; something we're doing correct."

Later, Muzzy said to a reporter that he had no similar figures as of the end of April 1990 because similar figures were not kept at the time. But he said he believed inquiries were so far running higher than in 1990.

"I don't know when we're going to break last year's figure, but it's going to be a long time until December," he said.

This year is the first time the bureau has aired any tourism radio advertising on Cape Girardeau. Most of the spots aired in the state, he said, are being ran in border areas, along with spots in Illinois and Iowa.

The bureau put a lot of material in the spots to encourage people to come to Cape Girardeau, said Muzzy. Since the spots started two weeks ago, he said, the bureau has received 100 telephone calls.

Bureau Marketing Coordinator Laurel Adkisson followed Muzzy Friday with her own remarks.

Muzzy said the next six months will be the biggest time of the year as far as tourism in Cape Girardeau is concerned.

Noting National Tourism Week begins this week, Adkisson said the bureau planned to kick off the observance by talking to elderly adults Saturday at Senior Fun Fest. The one-day event was held at the Show Me Center.

Next Friday, bureau representatives plan to visit the Missouri Information Center at the Marston exit on Interstate 55 near New Madrid. The center is the one of busiest of six centers across the state, Adkisson said.

Last July, she said, the center had over 20,000 people visit. And every person who comes through the center is headed north towards Cape Girardeau, because the center is on the north side of the interstate, said Adkisson.

"The more that Cape Girardeau can be down there the more we work with them, talk to them, and give them promotional items the more people they're going to send to Cape. They're going to say, `Ah heck, Sikeston's another 20 minutes, but just go another 30 minutes or 45 and you can get to Cape Girardeau. And here's what's in Cape Girardeau.'"

Following Friday's guest speakers, Membership Vice-Chairman Bart Ozbun announced the chamber's Business Person of the Month for April as Ken Weakley, president of K&L Distributing. Weekly is active in the Optimist Club, is a youth football coach, and donates products from his company to volunteer groups, Ozbun said.