Tourism big business for Emporia
Monday, September 18, 2006
Monday Conversation is a question-and-answer interview with a local person. This week’s interview is with Liz Martel, executive director of Emporia’s Convention & Visitors Bureau.
What projects has Emporia’s CVB been working on lately?
Our office over the next couple of months will be finishing our business-plan initiative. We have set several goals for the year and we will be working to ensure that we have completed all of those. One goal is to feature the Flint Hills in all of our marketing materials, and we have been doing that. We are also working with the Flint Hills Tourism Coalition, which is a 22-county coalition, and the state to have consistent marketing message.
Another thing that has been very important is working with the sports groups in town to draw sports events. Convention and visitors bureaus across the state have learned that sports are a huge tourism industry draw. We want to put together a long-term strategy to increase Emporia’s sports events. We are also working with Play Kansas — a new state coalition — Emporia State University and the Emporia Recreation Commission to bring more sports to Emporia. We have lots of diverse fields and arenas, which is important for the tourism industry.
Another initiative is new strategies to follow up with leads. We get hundreds of leads every year with our marketing, which is so important.
We have also been working on repeat events and last year we had 178 of them. These have been the major priorities for us this year.
What other activities are you involved in?
One of responsibilities set forth by the city commission is to help with the city’s 150th anniversary celebration. Our staff will be functioning as the staff for the event, so we are playing a huge role in this event. There will be some tourism benefit, but mainly it is for the city and a community event.
When people ask what there is to visit or tour in Emporia, what do tell them?
First, we let people know that we are the founding city of Veterans Day. Our attractions are the William Allen White House, which is a state historic site, the All Veterans Memorial, the Howe House, the Granada Theatre, the Lyon County Historical Society and the zoo just to name a few. We really try to showcase the whole community as well as our neighbors like the Flint Hills.
The city has been looking at your funding. What are your thoughts on that?
I understand the city commission has had a difficult job this year working on the city budget. I don’t envy their position. The transient guest tax funds, which are not part of the general fund, were state-mandated to be used for tourism promotion as an investment. The term “tourism promotion” has been interpreted in a variety of ways. The city commission has to decide where to spend the transient guest tax funds. In the state’s recently completed Tourism Satellite Account Perspective on Kansas Tourism, Lyon County enjoyed a $61.19 million economic impact. In 2003, the city invested $278,000 through the operation of the Convention & Visitors Bureau. I believe the numbers speak for themselves — a $248.88 return for every dollar invested. And it saved Lyon County taxpayers money.
According to the economic impact figures, the tax savings per household in Kansas was $878 in 2004 based on the tourism income. Tourism doesn’t just happen. It’s just like anything else: You get out of it what you put into it.
You just returned from travel and tourism conference in Washington, D.C. What were some of the things the group talked about?
It was a travel leadership summit. We had tourism professionals from several states in the United States and we met with our congressman and senators. We had several key issues that we had to visit with them about.
One issue was the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which has to do with having the U.S. Border Patrol examining fewer but more-secure travel documents. And we looked at travel documents for the 21st century. The immigration reform is also another major point, as well as public diplomacy.
America’s image continues to decline around the world and that’s affecting the tourism industry. We need to practice diplomacy. There are some new marketing programs like Discover America, which showcases the tourism attributes of America. The campaign promotes that America is a safe and wonderful place to visit.