CVB Chairman’s Report on the Future of Tourism for Evansville

Tourism Progress – EVCB Update

On behalf of the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau (ECVB), I would like to update the community on our efforts to assist the tourism industry.

Over the past 10 months, the ECVB Board of Commissioners has built upon past success to provide sound management and fiscal responsibility to promote our region.

In June, Bob Warren moved to our area as the new ECVB executive director. His 25 years of tourism experience in four states (Texas, Florida, Illinois and now Indiana) is having a positive impact on our agency.

A new set of policies and procedures have been approved to ensure management and the Board has full control over appropriate expenditures. The Board has improved our organization’s transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility to the lodging tax collected and used for the promotion and marketing of our region.

Following the overhaul of policies and procedures, a complete review of our organizational structure, budgeting, staffing, market segments and destination product was completed to refocus efforts on attracting visitors.

Through our analysis, it is clear that the leadership of our county and city have done an outstanding job of developing this product as a destination. We have year-round quality special events, a great convention center, the new Ford Center, museums, history, visual, cultural and performing arts, the LST, the Mesker Park Zoo, Casino Aztar and an incredible Riverfront, just to name a few. Our inventory audit found the opportunity is in marketing – we must tell our story to people who will come.

With the support of the Vanderburgh County Council we have identified existing financial resources to launch an aggressive marketing strategy to assist us in attracting a new leisure market. Not surprisingly, we discovered 29% of our annual lodging or 375,634 available room nights annually are weekend inventory. If we successfully market and promote our weekends to leisure travel and special events we could generate an additional $15.2 million in lodging sales annually.

The ECVB Board recently approved the adoption of a new Special Events Policy that will allow our organization to assist existing and new special events with the financial resources necessary to properly market and promote events. Our goal is to make certain the events grow in size, scope and length, making them more profitable for the host organizations while accomplishing the ECVB mission of attracting overnight visitors.

An important point to relay is that our organization is currently developing criteria to utilize when funding requests for large-scale projects are presented. The EVCB Board is intent on evaluating these projects to ensure a solid return on the investment with the ability to provide a firm justification before appropriation of funding.

Our industry represents $490 million in annual expenditures attracting an estimated 4.2 million visitors annually employing more than 6,100 employees who contribute in our economy. While annualized occupancy is at 58%, that number can be improved using proven industry techniques, sound marketing strategies, and effective direct sales in various markets.

As the president of the ECVB Board of Commissioners, I would like to recognize and publically thank our Board; Barbara McCarty, Rita Bauer, Mike Roeder, Ward Shaw, Donna Leader and John Montrastelle for their service and dedication to the tourism industry. They are serving with the energy, enthusiasm and a professional attitude that is required for success. It is our commitment to strive for continued success in this important industry we call tourism.

Steve Schaefer
President
Evansville Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Commissioners