CVB NEEDS TO FOCUS ON CITY'S TOURISM

The Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitor's Bureau faces a challenging future. Mary Miller has resigned as director of the CVB. It was a position she had held since the CVB came under city control in 1993.

The CVB has had its share of success stories in working to promote the city to tourists and conventioneers. But the bureau has been plagued by high employee turnover and other problems. Eleven workers have left the office since Miller took over. In fact, the CVB's board of directors has had too little time to deal with the important tourism issues as it addressed office disputes and other administrative matters.

The city shares some of the blame. It should have addressed the CVB problems head-on and worked to alleviate them. Perhaps now is the time to rethink who controls the CVB.

Currently, the CVB operates as a city agency. Perhaps it should be affiliated -- as it once was -- with the chamber of commerce, whose mission is to promote the city. It is an option that should be explored. Funding would need to follow the agency for it to remain effective. The CVB operates on a budget in excess of $300,000, which comes from the city's hotel-motel-restaurant tax.

For now, the future oversight of the CVB should take a back seat to hiring a new director. Miller's vacancy comes at a time the bureau was already shorthanded. The group sales director quit in mid-March, and another employee is out on maternity leave.

That leaves the day-to-day operates of the CVB in the hands of one full-time employee and volunteers. Unfortunately, these vacancies come at a time when summer tourism activities are gearing up.

The city should fill the vacancies as soon as possible. The city administration might want to gather chamber input about the hiring process and about the future of the CVB as well. The CVB board should also be well involved in the process. The city should make sure the new director meshes with the goals and long-range plans targeted by the board at its retreat last fall.

The Convention and Visitors Bureau is a key agency in promoting Cape Girardeau to the region, state and nation. It is imperative to get the bureau back to full staff and focused at the important job at hand as quickly as possible.