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12/28/2006
Finding your way - Tourism and shopping!
While reveling in the stunning beauty of Colorado’s front range this week after Christmas, my mind (understandably?) wandered to tourism - and shopping!
(Daughter Beth is in Denver completing her residency at the U. of Colorado Hospitals. It’s a quick jaunt to sneak in some special mom-daughter time. We spent Christmas Day snowshoeing on a “10’er” – stunning beauty on a 10,600 ft. peak.)
The Fox Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) defines us here in the Fox Valley as “Wisconsin’s Shopping Place.” The CVB is operated with funds from the 6% room tax collected in most Fox Valley communities. Wisconsin communities that collect room taxes are under no obligation to use the dollars effectively to increase tourism. Arguably, our Fox Cities CVB does a very good job in that regard.
The CVB has contributed to the construction of significant tourist attractions, e.g., the PAC, USA Youth Sports Complex, and Memorial Park Arboretum and Gardens (now, Gardens of the Fox Cities). In addition, they continuously do all it takes to attract conventions from around the world and have been very effective in attracting major sports competitions to our locale.
As part of what I call a “tourism effectiveness” assessment in 2004, “secret shoppers” were hired by the CVB. These stealth visitors, plain and simple, found the Fox Cities difficult to get around in. Signage identifying locations and attractions was small and hard to read, and varied greatly from one community to the next. That’s not to even mention how hard it is to figure out what community you’re in in the first place!
So, the CVB did more. They raised the money necessary to hire a firm specializing in “wayfinding” signage. Initial plans and specific design paradigms were presented in early December. Now the CVB is committing more dollars to design the specific directional and “attractions” signs for every nook and cranny of the Fox Cities.
The overriding goal of the Signage and Wayfinding Initiative is to increase the number of people who visit/use the Fox Cities area. (Did I mention shoppers?)
Needless to say, this extensive program is not cheap. Here’s what I think is the good news. The CVB is budgeting $375,000 (from room taxes) over the next 5 years to provide a 1:1 match for any and all communities committing to purchasing and installing the specially coordinated signage. So…. encourage your community to participate in this coordinated, regional, wisely-planned program. And watch for those specially designed blue signs to pop up throughout the Valley.
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• Talk health reform with Feingold (Th), Petri (today)
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| 2009 |
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• The Lawton-Bader files
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• Attend Appleton Schools budget meeting tonight
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• Is Rep. Nelson a political hack?
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• Kagen's pandering again
• Birthers - good stuff for you
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• The trouble with health care is paying for it
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• Burri: Kids... the joys and blessings
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• Rep. Huebsch: Wisconsin is proof government health care isn’t the answer
• School district contracts push up tax levy
• What? Obama, the Peace Prize?
• TODAY - hearing on Campaign Finance Reform
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• CBO report is out - and the bill isn't even written yet?
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• Burri: Copenhagen trip was amateurish
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• Cap and Trade. Always follow the money
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• Important votes Tuesday, including Appleton Common Council
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• State programs to cut? - Volume II
• Oh the naivete of youth
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• Make cuts only AFTER you're elected....
• Getting serious: What programs can we cut?
• Rep. Steve Kagen joining me on Jerry Bader Show today
• Rep. Van Roy: Dental Care Pilot Program
• Has Dave Obey turned the corner on earmarks?
• Speaker Huebsch: Governor turns down Federal Aid?
• Mark Rahmlow: "We're Broke."
• As taxpayers, how do we know if it's a Chevy or a Lexus?
• This is trash talk - about a veteran
• Frank Lasee: Take time to get the Compact right
• 'The Gableman Ad' - is it racist?
• Roth thankful, Kagen shaking money tree
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• Leadership on smoking ban? Not Hanna
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• Losing the Hastert seat is NOT a trend and NOT curtians for the GOP
• First suggestion for 'slashing' programs
• Big money-saver for municipalities
• More one time fixes. Nuts.
• Any chances???
• I'm doing the Jerry Bader Show, today, the 11th
• Representative Frank Lasee: Final Waltz of the Season
• Guest Blog: It's not the county's business to be in the nursing home business
• Yup, Hillary won Texas and Ohio
• Gableman/Butler race featured - and it isn't pretty
• Lies from Planned Parenthood and NARAL
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• The Troha sentencing, Doyle and that $200K
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• Lots of ideas. No money.
• The Cigarette Tax - "Poor Policy Instrument?"
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• Frankenstein - not in the library, but in the legislature
• A librarian, a legislator, a president
• $1.25/pack - NO, NO, NO, and NO
• Kagen and Reagan in the same breath?
• Menasha: behind the 8-ball, but not biting the dust
• Any way you slice it, Wisconsin government wants (further) in on health care
• The World is Flat...what about health care?
• The PAC - too precious to fail. Day 3
• News follow-ups: Appleton West, Kagen at the White House
• Fox Cities PAC - too precious to fail - Day 2
• Fox Cities PAC - too precious to fail
• New Transit Tax coming your way
• Rep. Petri has his finger in the dike - I guess
• AASD Retirement Costs Burdensome
• Health care, health care, health care, health care
• Water rate increase was no slam dunk
• Education for all is just a bad dream
• New Year's resolutions from a parade snob
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