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Le Mars CVB reports visitor trends, promotional campaigns and hotel‑motel grant activity
Summary
Jessica Brown Miller, representing the Le Mars Convention & Visitors Bureau, summarized 2024 promotional activity, visitor tracking and hotel‑motel grant awards, and noted partnerships with regional tourism organizations and state data providers.
Jessica Brown Miller, representing the Le Mars Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB), presented the CVB’s 2024 promotional and visitor report, outlining paid advertising, partnerships, facility rentals and visitor metrics used to target marketing.
Miller said paid facility ads remain in rotation through the summer and that the CVB purchases placement for events such as Bridal Expo, Ice Cream Days and the Plymouth County Fair. She described partnerships with regional tourism organizations and work with the state to obtain visitor data through geofencing and other visitor-tracking tools. "I hear my voice 400 times a day, so I'll be glad when those turn off again," Miller said of running facility advertisement recordings used in paid campaigns.
The CVB reported approximately 88,000 visitors in the previous year under the bureau’s measurement definition (visitors measured as persons coming from at least 50 miles away and present in Le Mars for at least two hours); the CVB reported that roughly 66.2% of those visitors spent at least one night in town. Miller noted that those visitor figures exclude local participants in events. She also reported that the city’s facilities coordinated about 296 events last year and that hotel‑motel grant awards supported seven projects in the prior cycle; the total grant amount reported was $34,800 and this year’s grant recommendations will be presented to the council at a future meeting.
Miller described digital and print marketing work, including sponsorships for Pioneer Village and Christmas in Hometown and placement in travel guides. She noted Western Iowa Tourism’s future was uncertain after the organization lost its executive director in the fall. Miller said the CVB manages the city’s website and main social media channels and shared that a water-department survey earned about 55,000 impressions. She recommended the city continue partnering with state data providers to refine where marketing dollars are spent.
No formal vote was taken on the CVB report; Miller offered to provide materials and copies of ads to council members on request.
