Enid Convention and Visitors Bureau (ECVB) is celebrating its first anniversary this week by reflecting on the last year’s achievements and planning future efforts to boost the city’s tourism and travel trade.
ECVB operates the Enid Welcome Center in the Kress Building at 123 W. Maine, which is part of Cherokee Strip Conference Center. Its staff works to market Enid through regional trade and tourism networks.
Enid City Commission approved forming the ECVB last year, and it opened for business Nov. 1, 2010, with an initial operating budget of $278,000.
The commission’s tasking for ECVB Director Marcy Jarrett was to bring in more visitors and boost the city’s sales tax revenue.
“It was a very quick start and a quick learning curve,” Jarrett said of starting ECVB.
She said the first year of work started with hiring a consulting firm, Young Strategies Inc., to provide market analysis, visitor research and a strategic plan to increase tourism and travel revenue.
“We needed to not throw good money after bad,” Jarrett said. “We needed to get started with good information and get started in the right direction.”
Armed with the consultant’s report, Jarrett and ECVB communications coordinator Rob Houston set out last spring to build relationships with state agencies and regional trade associations.
“We just took the initiative to go to those entities we knew would be strong partnerships for Enid, and we worked on building relationships,” Jarrett said. “There’s so many travel and tourism entities out there, we really needed to spend some time getting to know people and letting them know we’re here, and we are a resource for them in Enid. We’ve really been working to put Enid on the map for group tours, conferences, weekend getaways, really to get the word out about all the things there are to do here in Enid.”
Developing a marketing plan to “put Enid on the map” was a priority for ECVB staff over the last year.
“There were no real marketing pieces out there on Enid,” Houston said. “Enid didn’t have a bad reputation, it just didn’t have a reputation period. It’s hard sometimes to toot your own horn, but in our business you have to do that, you have to tell people what’s going on in the community and get people excited.”
Houston worked to increase Enid’s visibility to potential travelers by developing the Enid Visitor Guide, a 35-page brochure outlining local events, attractions, dining, shopping and lodging.
The brochures were released last March with an initial printing of 35,000. They were distributed through local hotels and online requests to the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department.
Houston said the distribution of the brochures has exceeded expectations, and a second printing of 50,000 brochures was ordered this month.
In addition to the brochures, ECVB has funded advertising in several magazines and replaced aging Enid billboards on Interstate 35.
Houston said he has gained some success with direct social network advertising and a weekly email notice of upcoming events, which he sends to local hotels and restaurants.
“It’s great, the response you can get from something as simple as that weekly email,” Houston said. “It started out as a means to get information out to restaurants and hotels so when their guests ask about what’s going on in town they have the information and can say something more than just ‘I don’t know’ or ‘nothing.’”
Jarrett said all of those marketing efforts are having a real impact on the local economy, and helping draw attention from state and regional media outlets.
In the last year, Enid has been featured on several television programs, including KOCO News 5’s “Helping Hands Tour,” KWTV News 9’s “Road Trip Oklahoma,” KFOR News 4’s “Is This a Great State or What?” and a feature on “Discover Okla-homa.”
“It’s not a fluke that we had the news channels and ‘Discover Oklahoma’ come here ... they knew they would have a contact here to help them with whatever they needed,” Jarrett said.
Houston said the statewide media attention will have long-term benefits for Enid.
“You can’t put a value on that ... it’s literally invaluable to have a 30-minute infomercial on your community shown across the state on TV, and we keep seeing people come into own who were interested in Enid because of those programs,” Houston said. “It all goes back to those early meetings we had, building those contacts, to let them know we’re here and they could count on us.”
Jarrett said the first year has gone well for ECVB, and she’s looking forward to a lot of growth in Enid’s travel and tourism market.
She described Enid’s downtown area as a “potential mini Bricktown,” referring to Oklahoma City’s Bricktown area.
Jarrett said the planned Enid Renaissance Project, with its new event center and renovations to Convention Hall, will create a travel and tourism hub in the city.
“I tell people that with a convention center, ballpark, restaurants and night life all within walking distance, we really are going to be a mini Bricktown,” Jarrett said.
But, she added, just making the investment in the event center and convention hall will not ensure success.
“Just having a facility and opening the doors doesn’t guarantee it will be filled,” Jarrett said. “Having the amazing facility planned gets people’s attention, but it’s not going to go out there and market itself. We’re going to have to work to market it strategically to those groups that might be interested in coming to this area.”
She said she and Houston already are hard at work marketing the Enid Renaissance Project, and the potential for the event center and Convention Hall.
“Those are real tools in our belt when we go out to market Enid,” Jarrett said. “We are marketing it before it’s even built, because large conventions start booking three or four years in advance, so we are already very much marketing the new event center.”
She said goals include increasing the market for sporting events in Enid, offering more assistance to local event planners, continuing to build on external marketing and ensuring visitors have the best experience possible.
The Enid City Commission voted in July to fund those continued efforts with $375,000 out of the general fund for the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
Jarrett said the funding is a good investment that will offer city taxpayers good returns by boosting sales tax revenue.
“It’s all about economic development ... and you’ve got to spend money to make it,” Jarrett said. “We feel very fortunate and honored to be in this position because we get to represent Enid and we want to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money, to spend the money wisely and grow the Enid market to benefit everybody.”
Drew Ritchie, Ward 4 city commissioner, said taxpayers’ money is well-spent in ECVB’s budget.
He supported the formation of ECVB last year, and he remains an ardent supporter of ECVB’s efforts.
“I have been, from the beginning, very much in favor of having a full-time staffed convention and visitor’s bureau, and I am very pleased with the results of this initial year,” Ritchie said.
“They have done a tremendous job of advertising for Enid and getting people to come to Enid,” Ritchie said, “and we’re stronger now than we were before because of their efforts. They’ve blown me away with year one, and I am really looking forward to seeing what future years are going to bring.”
For information on Enid Convention and Visitors Bureau, for Enid travel and tourism information, or to see renderings of the Enid Renaissance Project, visit ECVB at 123 W. Maine or call (580) 233-3643.