By STEVEN NALLEY
At a meeting of the Starkville Convention and Visitors Bureau board Tuesday, Jennifer Gregory, vice president for tourism development with the Greater Starkville Development Partnership, announced the money visitors spend on tourism in Oktibbeha County annually has increased nearly 25 percent over the last two years.
From 2009-2010, Gregory said, the Mississippi Development Authority’s tourism division reported an increase of nearly 10 percent, reaching about $65.2 million. She said such reports primarily account for money tourists spend on gas, food and hotels.
In 2011, Gregory said, tourism revenue reached about $74.9 million, an increase of about 14.8 percent. When the two consecutive increases are added together, she said, they approach a 25 percent increase over two years. She said this is a testament to the success of all the CVB’s tourism partners, including Mississippi State University athletics, the Mississippi Horse Park, the Starkville Area Arts Council and others.
“Not only are the football games and all that just such a great draw,” Gregory said, “but Starkville’s becoming a place that people want to go.”
Gregory also reported on tracking statistics from the CVB’s advertisements in print and online. When Internet users click on CVB ads on other websites, she said, the CVB is able to track which websites have the most users click on the ads and travel to the CVB home page. She said various advertisements with MSU athletics have led the most users to the CVB home page, with MSU’s home page in second and Facebook in third.
Gregory said the CVB can also track the success of print advertisements through Quick Response codes scanned by smart phones. The Starkville Main Street Association also used QR codes to add an element of surprise to its Secret Santa discount program, she said. Users had to either scan Secret Santa tags with a smart phone or have a sales clerk scan them to see discount amounts ranging from 15-25 percent.
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