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The government of Eureka Springs faces two challenges in the next years: 1. In order to maintain the city's infrastructure and continue providing services at a level expected by its citizens, city income must increase 5%-10% per year. 2. An economic environment must be restored that will enable business owners to realize a reasonable profit and earn an adequate living. While residents demand these things they also demand that growth will be controlled and the serenely beautiful environment so treasured by our citizens be preserved. At this time Eureka's financial security depends on the highly competitive business of tourism. Every year more communities are going after these tourist dollars while the cost of maneuvering in this arena escalates. Eureka has no option other than to make a success of the tourism business. We have to learn to work faster and smarter with the dollars that we have available to cultivate this market. We have to utilize the talents of all our citizens and, most importantly, we have to unite all our institutions in working toward these common goals. Looking Toward A New Century A plan for the financial growth of Eureka Springs The events of the past two years have caused us to question the two agencies that have had the responsibility of administering our growth and promoting and maintaining our business climate: The City Advertising and Promotion Commission (CAPC) and the Chamber of Commerce. (CoC). A rare opportunity has been presented to re-make both these entities, each with its own mission statement and separate identity but uniquely structured to share the responsibility of securing a healthy business environment for the City of Eureka Springs. Because we see the CAPC and the CoC as two separate entities, this report will be in two parts. The first part discusses changes in the CAPC. Their role will be dedicated to finding customers and getting them to Eureka Springs. The second party discusses the CoC, describing their role as a business advocacy group and the agency responsible for the customer once they get here. We hope you give this plan your consideration. The City Advertising And Promotion Commission The mission of the CAPC shall be to collect taxes levied on tourism businesses and use the money to market Eureka Springs as a tourist destination in order to attract visitors. The commission shall also use this money to ensure that the stay of these visitors is as enjoyable as possible in order to gain the loyalty and repeat business of these customers. To do this they shall oversee an integrated marketing plan for the city. The massive changes in customer choices for the tourism market is forcing traditional organizations to re-think their traditional, individually developed methods of advertising and marketing. The increasing competitiveness of the market has put increasing pressure on these organizations to produce marketplace results--sales and financial returns. Customer awareness no longer matters unless it translates into dollars. In the past an advertising program could be as simple as letting as many people as possible know you are here. Customers would automatically follow. This doesn't work anymore. Ten years ago unrelated advertising, uncoordinated promotions, missed cross-marketing opportunities and poorly organized events that did not take advantage of opportunities to create databases for future events didn't matter all that much. Today such oversights are a threat to the survival of any community in the tourism business. Integrated marketing and integrated communication is the only way to come out on top in today's world. Loyalty to the old way of doing things and turf battles over areas of responsibility are hard to overcome. Integrated marketing begins with the image you want to present and the story you want to tell. From that point on, every ad, every press release, every bit of response literature says something to reinforce that message. Next you identify the customer groups you want to attract. Finally you have to find out what those people want and expect to find when they get here and you have to make sure those expectations are fulfilled. This involves research and data collection. Once you have the information the entire town and everyone in it focuses on fulfilling these expectations and promoting this image and story. The way the town looks when you enter, the buildings, the landscaping, the appearance and professionalism of all the people who interact with the customers, the street signs, the ease of getting about, the ease with which information can be obtained…the graciousness of the police force and government agencies…all this is integrated marketing. This also includes all the advertising and promotion. Each ad, each promotion, each event must reinforce the message and the expectations of the potential customer. The entire town must look and feel coordinated and dedicated to making the visitor's stay a memorable experience…not an easy thing to do. Some one person has to be in charge. The person is the Marketing and Promotion Director. This person is also responsible for preparing the annual marketing plan, supervising the creative efforts of the advertising agencies involved and all the people who have been sub-contracted to produce advertising and promotional pieces. He/she must be available to work with any business owner who needs help producing their own promotions in order to coordinate them with other efforts. It naturally follows that that person has to work out of an office in Eureka Springs. The re-shaping of the CAPC should begin with the hiring of a team-building Marketing & Promotion Director. He/she should have a well-documented record of growing a successful destination-marketing program. We feel the CAPC should move immediately to hire this person. This person will be responsible for forming sales and marketing group intent on building the business of tourism. A great deal of the energy of this group will be spent on selling Eureka as a destination for special interest groups, small meetings and conventions. We are emphasizing this segment of our customer base because the needs of our motel-lodging sector are critical. We have about 3500 lodging rooms to fill which translates into 1,277,500 "lodging nights" a year. We cannot depend on transient trade to fill these rooms. The changes our marketing director makes might point the way to the organization of a Visitors Convention Bureau. This is an expensive undertaking but we expect that the director's efforts will produce the revenue for that project. How will these changes come about?
By the third year we should be in a position to announce the formation of a Visitor/Convention Bureau to provide all the assistance necessary to convert consumer awareness into a decision to visit Eureka Springs. This will not be achieved without the cooperation of the Chamber of Commerce. We see a new role for them. The Chamber of Commerce In any town in America the local Chamber of Commerce is thought of as the spokesman for the town. It is the place visitors go for information; the agency investors seek to obtain demographic information on the area. It is considered "the voice of local business". In most towns business owners feel it is their obligation to belong. It is the single most important advocate for business interests on the local and state level in Arkansas. We see our local CoC in this role. The new role for the CoC will be to represent the business community as an advocate before the CAPC and the city administration to be sure that the integrated marketing plan is working for the business community and that it is enjoying its benefits. The business community should have a major role in re-shaping the Chamber of Commerce to fill the role of making its health and welfare its prime responsibility. They have been unable to do in the past because of involvement with the CAPC. The CoC will be responsible for making sure that the visitor's stay here is as pleasant as possible. If the marketing director chooses, the CoC will continue to operate the tourist information desk in much the same fashion as they do today. They will greet local visitors and give them sufficient information about the history, attractions, lodging and dining establishments and entertainment and activity available. They will answer questions, give vacancy information during high traffic periods and answer questions. In other words, discover and attend to visitor needs. A major role for the Chamber is the gathering of information. Businesses in Eureka receive many requests for information and services from tourists as well as complaints. This information indicates marketing trends, expectations and customer satisfaction that is vital to a marketing plan. This should be a major activity of the Chamber. We have no place a potential business investor can go for information vital to decision-making. The Chamber should maintain a website with demographic information and anything else that potential investors might need when looking for a business site. Most businesses today use the Internet to search for relocation sites and we are one of the few towns in Arkansas that doesn't have a website. All businesses in Eureka should be in a database with all the information pertinent to that business so that phone and desk inquiries can be answered quickly and factually. What we are saying here is that we need a pro-active Chamber that is in partnership with each member and striving to make each business a success. Summary The plan presented here will improve the business climate of Eureka Springs. For the first time the confusion of who and what the CAPC and the CoC are and do will be ended. We have suggested for each organization an separate identity and a separate role which, when coordinated, will provide Eureka Springs with a powerful marketing force that will restore us to the number one tourist destination in Arkansas. In closing we would like to voice one more thought. We must have a constant presence in Little Rock and with Parks and Tourism. The Director of the Chamber of Commerce and the Marketing Director of Eureka Springs will present a united front the state governmental agencies that control our future. That is the responsibility that has to be shared because it is so time consuming. We will gain much more respect if we present a well-planned, professional, coordinated front with these agencies. Joyce Zeller and Bill Freeland, circa 1996 Return to "Papers" Index Return to Eureka People |