Independence Heritage Tourism

To get the ball rolling, what do citizens think about our city’s Heritage Tourism program. The city’s annual tourism budget was $992,000. This is a higher budget than what was allocated for the Law Department, Water Pollution Control, Human Resources, and Municipal Court. In the City’s Annual Budget Report (FY July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009), prepared for the City Manager and City Council, under the City’s list of past accomplishments it states “In 2007 nearly 1/4 million visitors toured our historic attractions.” From that statement, it sounds like city officials view our existing tourism program as successful. From my observations, those statistics are no way near the actual numbers of tourists who come to Independence. What do you think? I see is a brochure stand tucked away in a dark corner of the City Hall lobby (with city employees behind locked doors). I also see a few ads and billboards. Reports indicate that we have 4 full time city employees that only work on tourism. City-owned sites such as the National Frontier Trails Center, the Vaile, and the Bingham-Waggoner Estate all have their own separate staffs and budgets. The bed tax from hotels and motels funds our tourism program. We’re lucky to have this funding source, but are we making effective use of it? The success of our Heritage Tourism program is critical to the success of the Square and the neighborhoods surrounding the Square. You would think that the presence of tourists wondering our neighborhoods would mean sidewalk improvements, filling abandon buildings (Palmer), and historic preservation activities would be a priority. Does Independence understand the relationship between heritage tourism and historic preservation?