View Full Version : Looking for tourism



Patrick
09-20-2004, 11:55 AM
Looks like our city leaders, Mick Cornett in particular, have a good head on their shoulders. I'm glad to see they're looking to promote Bricktown more. Not only will this help bring more tourists in, but it might help attract more interested developers to the area.

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"Officials seek boost in tourism


By Steve Lackmeyer
The Oklahoman

Consider Hollywood star Matt Damon a typical Oklahoma tourist -- he's passed through the Sooner State, but until July he never got to stop and look around.

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett wasn't surprised when Damon, visiting to promote his film, "The Bourne Supremacy," informed his hosts he was among the thousands of interstate travelers who pass through here every day.

Even with a list of new-and-improved attractions, tourism tax collections for Oklahoma County show that after a boost several years ago, the area is merely holding its own as a destination.

Cornett, a media and marketing star by trade, wants to see Oklahoma City strut -- and draw more tourism dollars.

"I think we're just reaching the tip of the iceberg on tourism," Cornett said. "Our interstate traffic is just enormous, and we've never tapped into it fully."

The city's tourism experts estimate a traveler like Damon who stops overnight in Oklahoma City will likely spend $220.

As Oklahoma City's inner-city continues to age and new housing is added to more of the city's outskirts, the taxes paid on that overnight visit will be critical to keeping the budget balanced, Cornett said.

Cornett sums it up like this: If we want to keep our pools opened, our parks mowed, our streets resurfaced and maintain good police and fire protection, the city must attract more tourists.

Cornett thinks Oklahoma City in 2004 has the potential to be a tourist destination, thanks to a wave of improvements in its three main draws -- Bricktown, the Adventure District and Stockyards City.

The trick is to get the word out.

Cornett is asking transit officials to add signs along Interstate 40 indicating exits for Bricktown and other downtown attractions. And at Cornett's suggestion, veteran Bricktown developer Jim Brewer is leading an effort to put up billboards promoting the entertainment district along the three interstates -- I-40, Interstate 44 and Interstate 35.

"We're going to tell people there's a Bricktown exit," Cornett said. "But we still need to tell people what Bricktown is. If you're from out of state, the Bricktown exit doesn't mean anything to you."

Signage is also sought for the Adventure District, which despite being the city's oldest entertainment area is struggling to match the branding accomplished by Bricktown and Stockyards City.

Summer Johnson, Adventure District association coordinator, credits the Oklahoma City Zoo -- one of the Midwest's oldest zoological parks -- with inspiring a district that boasts of more than a half-dozen major attractions that drew 2.4 million visitors in 2003.

"Our hope is to become as well known as Bricktown," Johnson said. "Our goal is to create an identity and to bring people from the region to this area for a weekend vacation."

Instead of trying to compete with Bricktown, the district's members helped pay for a summer Oklahoma Spirit trolley to link the Adventure District destinations with the downtown entertainment district.

The Adventure Group is also hitting the radio air waves in surrounding states -- a tactic also used by the Frontier Country Marketing Association, which promotes the 12-county central Oklahoma region.

In recent weeks, Frontier Country Marketing representatives toured Kansas and Texas, promoting attractions ranging from the zoo to the Bricktown Canal to the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum.

And in what public relations director Eric Oesch hopes will be a new trend, a Wichita radio show was broadcast live from downtown Oklahoma City after a weekend-long sampling of area attractions.

"I'm impressed," said Manny Cowzinski, co-host of "The Morning Buzz" show on Wichita's top-rated KFBZ 105.3. "Oklahoma City has a lot going on here -- I'd definitely be interested in making this a place to visit."

Yet another radio DJ, "Brother Van" of Fort Worth's KSCS, hosted his popular "Where in Texas is Brother Van?" while actually on a Bricktown water taxi. Texas listeners were treated to a performance that portrayed the canal (actually pretty desolate at 7:30 a.m.) as being a mini Mardi Gras.

Chad Huntington, operator of Water Taxi of Oklahoma, thinks the city is already a regional destination. On a recent weekend Huntington encountered visitors from Hot Springs, Ark., itself a major tourist destination.

"I asked them, what brought them to Oklahoma City?" Huntington recalled. "And they said 'this,' meaning the canal and the other improvements we have downtown. They said they read Oklahoma City's downtown had been improved, and they specifically mentioned the canal."

The visitors told Huntington they were big fans of San Antonio's RiverWalk and wanted to see how Oklahoma City "measured up."

Huntington said his water taxi business, which opened to long lines of mostly local residents five years ago, now relies on tourists for about half its revenue.

Frank Sims, president of the Bricktown Association, credits old attractions such as the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and newer ones such as the Oklahoma City National Memorial for combining with Bricktown, Stockyards City and other draws for making Oklahoma City competitive in the tourism market.

"It's a whole new image we have that the outside world gets to see," Sims said. "We're no longer thought of as people who have six-shooters at our side or wearing Indian headdresses."

Kristy Potter, member of a newly formed downtown alliance of tourist destinations, said the image transformation will have to start at home.

"We need to evangelize Oklahoma City itself," Potter said. "I think there are a lot of people in Oklahoma City who have not experienced downtown in years. And if they were to come, they would impressed -- they would be very proud of what they see."