CVB projects breakout season at MSP

Ticket sales expected to top half-million dollars

The entrance to the Missouri State Penitentiary.
The entrance to the Missouri State Penitentiary.

Diane Gillespie, the executive director of the Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau, teased a week ago she would have good news for the Jefferson City Council when she delivered her 2017 budget to the council's finance committee.

And Gillespie was a woman of her word last week, detailing a proposed $1,153,479 budget of revenues and expenses, which is 21.46 percent above 2016's financial plan.

The council committee, co-chaired by 1st Ward Councilmen Rick Prather and J. Rick Mihalevich, voted unanimously Thursday to approve Gillespie's plan and allow it to climb the ladder of municipal reports to full council status at the Nov. 21 meeting.

The positive projection which prompted that endorsement from the committee was highlighted by an anticipated 37.72 percent increase in revenue from ticket sales for tours of the decommissioned Missouri State Penitentiary. Gillespie expects more than 32,500 visitors to pay to ogle the prison this year. Ticket sales are already at $311,398 for 2016, and she projects them to top a half-million dollars in 2017, a gain of 37.72 percent. Gillespie noted, as recently as 2009, the MSP was attracting only 3,000 visitors annually.

A further comparison of the growth of the CVB is the agency's $776,317 budget total in 2013 vs. 2017's $1.153 million, Gillespie said.

Other line items on the revenue side of the 2017 budget Gillespie unveiled Thursday morning include:

$484,500 from room taxes, a 1.96 percent increase;

$36,799 in Missouri Division of Tourism funds, a 16.57 percent increase;

$23,200 from fundraising athletic events, a 20.26 percent increase;

$15,000 in new revenue from Missouri State Penitentiary Museum admissions;

And $80,000 in the sale of promotional items, a 37.5 percent increase.

Payroll expenses projected by the CVB for 2017 are $291,400, a 3.67 percent rise, while administrative and general expenses will decline 8.6 percent to $117,556, Gillespie said.

That budget shrinkage is sourced in the overall reduction in expenses associated with the CVB move from its previous headquarters on East High Street, just a block from the Capitol, to the current location in the 1888 Col. Darwin W. Marmaduke House, the former MSP warden's mansion directly across East Capitol Street from the prison. The CVB will be able to cut 2017 building rental by $4,650, building maintenance by $4,000, building utilities by $4,700 and parking fees $540 because of the change of addresses.

The CVB's new home also accommodates the MSP museum, including a historic cell, as well as offices for Gillespie and her staff. The move, Gillespie said in a post-meeting interview, has been about flawless, with two CVB staffers doubling when needed as museum tour guides.

And the 21.46 percent budget increase slated for the next year will allow the CVB to move from $492,627 in total 2016 marketing to an estimated $636,812 for 2017. Inside that element of the budget is $25,000 in new capital improvements, largely targeted at repairs on the prison. For instance, Gillespie said visitors will soon notice vastly improved lighting in the prison's old Building No. 4, where much of the tour is centered.

Print advertisements portraying Jefferson City attractions appear regularly in the monthly editions of Missouri Life ($1,500), St. Louis Magazine ($1,625), AAA Midwest Traveler ($1,071), Madden ($2,727), Rural Missouri ($2,000) and Best of the Midwest ($1,875). The agency also invests in billboards: $3,000 for two billboards with DDI Media and $3,000 for two with Porlier Outdoor Advertising, as well as one-off buys like $2,916 for Trip Advisor's sponsorship campaign.

CVB will earmark $43,000 for outdoor advertising in 2017, $9,000 for its high-gloss brochures, $34,633 in print advertising, $24,546 for digital marketing and $11,085 in trade show fees.

Gillespie, a long-time convention and visitors bureau leader in Springfield before moving to Jefferson City, said CVB will be exhibiting at the Travel South trade show in Branson and the National Tourism Association show in St. Louis, two of the nation's most well-attended in the industry.