Jefferson County is a destination spot for tourists.
At least that’s the message the newly formed County Tourism Commission wants to spread.
The group, which eventually will consist of an executive director and a seven-person board, is an offshoot of the Jefferson County Growth Association.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for some time, but it never did happen,” said Dan Govero, president of the Growth Association. “We figured there isn’t a better time than now to get it started.”
The new group’s aim is to promote Jefferson County to outsiders.
“We want to let people know about events such as Twin City Days, our wineries, our restaurants, our walking trails and parks – anything that will draw people in,” Govero said. “We’re looking to bring people into the county who will spend money here.”
He said the commission will work with existing tourism groups, like the ones established in Arnold and Festus.
“The whole goal is to join in and work together,” he said. “We want to coordinate our efforts and promote the entire county.”
He said the Tourism Commission will put together a brochure featuring the county’s tourism assets, place advertising in tourism publications and come up with other ideas to promote the county.
Those efforts, of course, will take money.
“The state has money available for tourism and there also are grants out there,” Govero said, “but you have to have a tourism commission in place. They just don’t give you this money. That also will be something the board will do – identify sources of funding.”
Govero said the Growth Association is helping to set up the commission as a nonprofit organization under the Internal Revenue Service guidelines, and is coming up with bylaws, an essential step to formally establishing it, but it will be a stand-alone group.
It will share an executive director, though.
Sharon Floyd, a part-time Growth Association employee, is that organization’s executive director and will serve the same role for the Tourism Commission.
“I’ve been busy with the setup of what we’re going to call the JCTC,” Floyd said. “We’re still in our beginning phases. But we’re really excited for what’s to come.”
The initial board will be chaired by David Hovis and includes Arnold City Administrator Bryan Richison, who will represent the various cities in the county, business advisor Scott Seek and Leader advertising representative Rob Schneider.
Hovis and Schneider will represent the Growth Association on the board and Seek, a member of the Jefferson County Parks Board, will represent parks and recreation interests. Other members to be appointed will be drawn from the county’s wineries and breweries, another from the hotel-motel industry and the final one from restaurant owners, Floyd said.
She said the board likely will meet monthly, although it may have more frequent get-togethers in the beginning, and likely via Zoom online conference calls during the pandemic.
Govero said the county has a lot to offer.
“The Bottleneck Ridge Ride last year brought in 600 people,” Govero said of the annual bicycle tour of the county sponsored by the Growth Association. “Of that, 80 percent were from out of the county. But we saw them later at wineries and restaurants, and we know they came back later to the county. We know. We saw them.”
Govero conceded that starting a tourism commission in the teeth of a pandemic might not be ideal timing, but then again it may be.
“At some point, this is going to be over and people are going to start moving around again and wanting to go places,” he said. “We’ll have everything in place when that happens, rather than having to start things at the last minute.”