Trending: #Columbia

Ask any Columbia resident about the city’s busiest times of year, and you’ll probably get a handful of similar answers. Homecoming is a guaranteed sellout football game as alumni of all ages celebrate by making a return trip to Columbia.

Thousands flock to Stephens Lake Park in September to take in dozens of musical acts at the Roots N Blues N BBQ festival. The True/False Film Fest brings in enough out-of-towners to make the streets of Columbia feel like a miniature version of Portland. In an average festival day in 2013, an attendee spent $104.50 on lodging, $80.92 on dining and $164.87 on shopping.

These hallmark events certainly fill up hotel rooms around town, but dozens of other economically important events also dot the city’s annual calendar. Even smaller events can cause hotel bookings and downtown shopping to spike, and for employees at the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau, selling Columbia and attracting tourists is a year-round project. Thanks to a steady flow of events, added flights out of the Columbia Regional Airports and a fresh marketing push, tourism in Columbia has increased each year since 2011, having only slightly dipped during the years of the recession. So far, 2015 is on track to be another record-breaking year.

“Right now in Columbia, we feel like we’re in a really good place as far as having a very desirable destination to market,” says Megan McConachie, marketing communications manager at the Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We know that once we get someone to Columbia, they’re going to want to come back and visit again. ”

The downtown draw

In 2013, visitors logged 1.1 million overnight stays in Columbia’s 3,847 hotel rooms, according to statistics from the Downtown Community Improvement District. Conventions and exhibits in Columbia draw upward of 191,000 visitors annually.

Community Improvement District marketing coordinator Joshua Wright says the CID, also known as The District, has a variety of missions. It aims to ensure downtown Columbia is an appealing place to live, do business and spend time. Its duties include working with the Convention and Visitors Bureau to get information and maps to tourists.

“A lot of what we do is aid the Convention and Visitors Bureau to get information out to tourists,” Wright says. “We work in tandem with them to work on marketing materials and get discounts to a lot of different businesses for people who come in for conventions and events.”

Columbia’s hotel tax revenues have increased by more than 20 percent in the past three fiscal years, from $1.9 million in fiscal year 2012 to $2.3 million in fiscal year 2014. The first quarter of fiscal year 2015 brought in more than $700,000 in hotel tax revenues, up from $561,172 during the same period three years ago.

October is reliably the city’s busiest month for tourism as alumni buy up hotel rooms months in advance for MU Homecoming. Smaller events such as the Citizen Jane Film Festival and an annual high school marching band competition held at Faurot Field draw more crowds to Columbia, and MU’s Family Weekend, usually a September event, will also sell out hotels months in advance.

Wright says spending time downtown is a priority for many visitors. The District has worked to provide information for signage and maps promoting downtown along bike trails and distribute information in hotels.

“Just about everyone who comes to visit visits downtown,” Wright says. “We want to make sure people know where they’re going.”

A full calendar

Although the student population falls in the summer months, Columbia is still far from a ghost town. Thousands of visitors head to the city in June, July and August for events such as the Show-Me State Games and State Senior Games. In previous summers, Columbia also hosted Special Olympics Missouri’s State Summer Games, an event that can draw more than 2,000 athletes from around Missouri. This July and August, the Missouri Dental Association will take over the Hearnes Center to hold its annual free dental clinic for the underserved. The 2014 event in St. Louis brought in thousands of patients and dentists from around Missouri, with some patients traveling hours to receive checkups.

McConachie says it’s also common for several smaller tournaments to be held in quick succession in the summer. The bureau might not have those smaller events marked on the peak occupancy calendar it distributes to city hotels, restaurants and other businesses until it begins getting calls from people in search of hotel rooms. The bureau regularly updates the calendar to help businesses match staffing and pricing decisions with expected crowds.

Columbia’s quietest months are usually December and January. Students take off for winter break, and December commencement ceremonies at MU and Columbia College are a fraction of the size of May’s ceremonies, though events such as Columbia Eve Fest and New Year’s Day do draw some out-of-towners.

Despite Columbia’s reputation as a college town, one of its most consistent sources of tourism, and therefore economic impact, is high school events. Mizzou Arena was home to the state wrestling competition in February and six days of state basketball tournaments in March. High school music programs head to MU for an annual choral, band and orchestra competition in late April. McConachie says the Convention and Visitors Bureau bids against other cities to host these competitions, though Columbia’s central location and status as the headquarters of the Missouri State High School Activities Association are both advantages in landing those events.

COMO rebranded

Columbia emerged from the recession relatively unscathed, but its tourism push has still enjoyed a renaissance in recent years. In April 2013, the bureau abandoned its decade-old mouthful of a tagline, “The smart, innovative, artsy, eclectic, savvy, vibrant, too-dynamic-to-fit-into-a-short-tagline city,” and its rainbow Curlz MT logo in favor of the shorter “what you unexpect” slogan and a sleeker — though still rainbow — “COMO” logo. Around the same time, city officials signed a deal between Columbia Regional Airport and American Airlines, bringing new daily flights to and from Columbia, Chicago and Dallas-Ft. Worth. In two years of operation, the flights have been almost entirely profitable. American Airlines began servicing Columbia Regional Airport with larger jets in January.

McConachie, who has worked at the Convention and Visitors Bureau for nearly a decade, says she’s seen the city’s promotional efforts evolve over the years as Columbia continues to grow.

“Our marketing plan is a lot more focused now and a lot more digitally based,” McConachie says. “It means really finding out more about our audiences and really focusing on the kind of people who are a likely visitor who we just need to give that extra push to come visit.”

The Convention and Visitors Bureau’s marketing spans print, online and billboards across Missouri and beyond. Most of the focus is on attracting state and regional business, but McConachie says the marketing extends as far away as northern Arkansas, Dallas and Chicago. The bureau’s employees also head to trade and tourism shows to sell Columbia and attract potential events.

Part of Wright’s job with The District has included promoting downtown Columbia in a series of TV spots that debuted shortly before the True/False Film Festival. He also produces a weekly video with Columbia Access Television highlighting live music around the city. He’s working to have the videos appear in local media and beyond.

“We’re eventually working on getting those on local media,” Wright says, “and if things progress the way I hope they do, we’ll be able to showcase those videos in different markets around the state.”

Wright says he’s seen business and tourism in downtown Columbia increase in his two years at The District. The Broadway hotel and its restaurant in particular have overshot early estimates, but downtown businesses have a low vacancy rate, and sales figures have increased.

Part of The District’s job, Wright says, is finding the right way to work with Columbia’s visitors, permanent residents and local businesses.

“We’re trying to be a good voice for the residents and the businesses in the community,” he says. “It’s not just about advertising the community.”