Above: Seated Left to Right: Anil K. Dharna, general manager, Ramada Inn at the Arch; John P. Ferrara, president, The Pasta House Company; Patrick L Hanon, president, Hanon Management.
Standing Left to Right: Thomas P. Sehnert, Owner, The Smoke House Market; Mitchell A. Bolen, general manager, Sheraton Plaza Hotel; Robert F. O’Loughlin, president & CEO, Lodging Hospitality Management; James A. Proctor, president, P&P Restaurants, Inc.; Robert F. Bedell, president & CEO, St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission; Sherry McCool, general manager, Marriott Pavilion Hotel.
Missing Members: Deborah Patterson, president, Monsanto Fund, Monsanto Company; Robert J. Kelley, president, St. Louis Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
By Cheryl Walker
Summer vacations are over and the St. Louis region is well on its way towards welcoming more than six million tourists and booking 450,000 convention room nights by the end of the year. One might expect the board and staff of the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission (CVC) to be breathing a sigh of relief at the end of another successful tourist season. But, that is not the way the travel and tourism industry works.
“The real measure of the CVC’s accomplishments isn’t measured in what business is here today but in how much we’re selling today for the future: next week and next year and four years from now,” says Robert F. Bedell, president and chief executive officer for the St. Louis CVC. “The business that’s booked today is the result of the past six years of sales efforts.”
These sales efforts, selling St. Louis outside St. Louis, is one of the major activities of the CVC. Tourism and convention business makes a big difference in the local economy. According to Nancy Milton, director of public relations, the 6.4 million visitors during its last fiscal year resulted in $2 billion in direct spending. To provide services to these visitors, more than 53,000 St. Louis area residents are employed in the hospitality industry, collectively earning more than $1 billion much of which they, in turn, spend within the community.
The St. Louis CVC has 750 member businesses. Some, such as hotels, restaurants, airlines, attractions, automobile rental companies and meeting services companies, benefit directly from the increased visitor demand and visitor spending.
“Other businesses are members of the CVC, because what this organization does is good for the regional economy,” Bedell says. “Many have joined because they are purveyors to hospitality industry companies. When their hotel or attraction clients are doing well, they benefit as their businesses grow, just as the hospitality industry does.”
Recognizing that tourism is both fun and serious business, last year the CVC board headed by Bedell and Chairman John Ferrara, president of The Pasta House Co., developed a five-year strategic plan that CVC staff is using successfully.
“The plan simplifies our mission statement, which is to increase visitor demand and visitor spending,” Bedell states. “This solidified our main marketing focus and identified the four market segments on which we will concentrate: city-wide conventions, individual travelers, single-hotel meetings and leisure groups.”
Bedell explains the plan also addresses the CVC’s push for a positive impact on the St. Louis economy by growing the hospitality industry in the region with such strategies as supporting the development of new downtown hotel rooms and encouraging efforts to improve those rooms and hotel properties.
Naturally, the CVC allocates resources based on the potential return on investment. The region enjoys the “biggest bang for the buck” on city-wide convention business. Because the CVC has a direct relationship with the management of the America’s Center convention facility and one meeting, convention or special event attracts hundreds or thousands of visitors to the area, it’s a key focus for the organization.
Bedell continues, “Our industry partners — the major hotels — have a good feel for how well we’re doing. During the last half of 1998 and the first quarter of 1999 our selling activity was incredible. As a result, our foundation of citywide convention business for 1999, 2000 and 2003 is solid.”
According to Bedell, St. Louis area meeting and convention business alone has increased 30,000 room nights this year. In the next two years they expect the 503,000 room nights for 2000 and 561,000 room nights in 2001.
The strategic planning process is helping the St. Louis CVC recognize the city’s challenges in becoming a major convention city. The convention industry divides the world’s major cities into “tiers.” A first tier convention city such as Las Vegas, New York, Los Angeles or Orlando offers key benefits such as large convention and meeting space, a convention headquarters hotel and service from one or more major airlines, even better to be a hub city.
The St. Louis CVC believes the city is currently near the top of the second tier. One of the things lacking is the convention headquarters hotel. “It would help us attract an additional 20 major conventions each year,” Milton states. “A major convention is one that uses 1,000 or more hotel room nights.”
The other necessity is airport improvements and more transportation from the airport to meeting hotels. Bedell says the CVC and the St. Louis region are making progress in addressing these issues. Another result of the strategic plan was development and introduction of the CVC’s new ad campaign for St. Louis, targeting leisure travelers within a 300-mile radius. The slogan, “Explore St. Louis. There’s More Than Meets The Arch,” takes advantage of St. Louis’ character and historical significance.
“We have a very active advertising campaign for the leisure travel market, which is the average consumer like you and me,” Bedell observes. “St. Louisans never see this campaign, because our job is to bring out-of-towners to the region. Just as you sit at home and watch a TV ad luring you to visit Memphis, people in our target markets are watching spots enticing them to come to St. Louis.”
The TV campaign is supported by print ads and radio promotions as well as a Web site, www.st-louis-cvc.com, which had more than 200,000 visitors during the first quarter of this year.
Starting with 1999 and moving forward the next few years, St. Louis is hosting an impressive list of meetings and events. The largest convention of 1999, the Amway/InterNet Services Corp., brings 45,000 to St. Louis this month. And last month, St. Louis was the host city for the National Governors Association.
The religious community brought Pope John Paul II in January and will have Billy Graham here in October. St. Louis also has been extremely successful in being awarded high-profile NCAA sporting events including the 2000 wrestling championships, Women’s Final Four basketball in 2001, the 2004 Midwest Regionals and, of course, the 2005 Men’s Final Four.
Also exciting for St. Louis tourism is being host city for the national Travel Industry Association’s 2003 Pow Wow, the industry’s premiere trade show. “It’s the precursor to getting St. Louis sold and included in all the international tour operators’ materials for 2004 and beyond,” Bedell states, adding that the CVC staff attends dozens of travel and tourism industry promotion shows each year to attract new meeting planners and tour operators to the area.
“People who visit the region or come here for meetings are very impressed with all St. Louis has to offer. We’re always told how the destination has exceeded their expectations. St. Louisans need to appreciate what we have here.”
