Persona non grata follow-up
(see my 6/13 post before reading this)
Well, Sandra did get an email from the Mayor stating that she had attempted to call Sandra and the line was always busy (must have used the phone book - that's the line I use for internet!). Mayor Arwood also said that her appointments were required to be city residents. OK, we can accept that. However -
We're still personae non grata with the Chamber, otherwise maybe they'd have tried to get us to join. Despite my lack of enthusiasm about the quality of their efforts to promote tourism, we'd join if we thought it would create a reasonable amount of business for our B&B. Unfortunately, they couldn't answer some basic questions about their website traffic - it turns out they have no tracker on the site.
It's essential for a commercial website to have a tracker that tells how much traffic each page gets and where it comes from. That's just a basic part of the internet marketing budget, and it's CHEAP! I work with a program called SuperStatZ which is widely used by the B&B industry - only $120 per year. Then, there's Google Analytics, which is free. I don't know exactly what it does, but almost anything Google does works well.
As we travel throughout the state & country (see our travel website at MissouriDayTrips.com where we just posted info from our trip west back in March/April), we pick up brochures for various localities. Without fail, they do a better job of presenting attractions that people might want to stop and see than does anything Warrensburg puts out.
Isn't it time that the GWACC&VC started using its $90,000 room tax money to promote Warrensburg tourism instead of just responding to requests? Isn't it time to get "proactive?" Create an "attractions" page at the website? Create a real tourism brochure? Create a group travel and convention page on the website (plus a brochure)? Prove to the in-town lodging owners that they're doing something to bring in the guests who pay the bills? Isn't it better to earn more more than to beg for it (the Chamber's "Twilight Cruise" event).
For Tourism and Accountability
Well, Sandra did get an email from the Mayor stating that she had attempted to call Sandra and the line was always busy (must have used the phone book - that's the line I use for internet!). Mayor Arwood also said that her appointments were required to be city residents. OK, we can accept that. However -
We're still personae non grata with the Chamber, otherwise maybe they'd have tried to get us to join. Despite my lack of enthusiasm about the quality of their efforts to promote tourism, we'd join if we thought it would create a reasonable amount of business for our B&B. Unfortunately, they couldn't answer some basic questions about their website traffic - it turns out they have no tracker on the site.
It's essential for a commercial website to have a tracker that tells how much traffic each page gets and where it comes from. That's just a basic part of the internet marketing budget, and it's CHEAP! I work with a program called SuperStatZ which is widely used by the B&B industry - only $120 per year. Then, there's Google Analytics, which is free. I don't know exactly what it does, but almost anything Google does works well.
As we travel throughout the state & country (see our travel website at MissouriDayTrips.com where we just posted info from our trip west back in March/April), we pick up brochures for various localities. Without fail, they do a better job of presenting attractions that people might want to stop and see than does anything Warrensburg puts out.
Isn't it time that the GWACC&VC started using its $90,000 room tax money to promote Warrensburg tourism instead of just responding to requests? Isn't it time to get "proactive?" Create an "attractions" page at the website? Create a real tourism brochure? Create a group travel and convention page on the website (plus a brochure)? Prove to the in-town lodging owners that they're doing something to bring in the guests who pay the bills? Isn't it better to earn more more than to beg for it (the Chamber's "Twilight Cruise" event).
For Tourism and Accountability
posted by Bill Wayne @ 7:06 AM
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