Graham tells Rotary about guiding tourism out of COVID

Callaway County Tourism Director Renee Graham visited with the Fulton Rotary Club on Wednesday to see how tourism in the county is working through COVID-19 and how she plans to welcome tourists back.

Graham is celebrating her sixth birthday in her position. She commuted for five years but decided last year to move to Fulton and make herself a Callawegian.

“If you are a Callawegian, if you live, study, work, play, or make love here – that is important,” said Graham.

Although a separate organization from the Callaway Chamber of Commerce, they all have the same goal – to bring visitors to Fulton.

Fulton saw slight growth in 2015-16, Graham said, then 2017 was a big year due to the solar eclipse and failure before 2018 saw a small decline. But 2019 saw revenue rebound and it looked hopeful.

Graham felt he was making a difference, a solid, conservative budget was created and set in 2020.

“I just had a feeling that in such high conditions there would be a correction and I wasn’t sure if it would be gasoline prices or international travel,” Graham told Rotary members.

It ended in a pandemic.

In the beginning, tourism in Fulton suffered like everything else. In the first two months after the closure, sales fell 73 percent. Graham remembered her building had to be closed and she was the only one in the office. Graham received calls from distraught people so she wasn’t sure what to do, how to help, or if she could.

However, as a member of the Missouri Association of Convention and Business Bureaus, they found a way to be there for one another and to worry about how to get out of the pandemic. Some budget cuts have been made to marketing.

Graham and her board were looking for other places where cuts could be made. In April 2020, they cut their budget by 47 percent, and Graham decided to cut their hours and make a wage cut by the end of the year.

When things recovered, she turned to Kingdom City because hotels on I-70 were thriving with construction teams and truckers coming through and people starting to vacation. But as more and more companies opened up, things kept looking better. Then there was an outage that lasted longer than the Callaway Energy Center expected. While it was bad for them, it was good for tourism revenue.

While Graham was working with Kingdom City, the “Visit Fulton” signs were removed and the focus was mainly on Kingdom City, as the hotels there were the largest revenue generator in the county, especially with the gas stations and restaurants. She promoted breakpoints there and expanded the commitment to day-trippers.

In Boone County, for example, things were much quieter than Callaway. By promoting the Serenity Winery near Millersburg, which was open with plenty of outdoor space for social distancing, they were able to grow their revenue and attract customers.

Because Callaway County Tourism received grants from the Missouri Division of Tourism and funding from the county’s CARES Act, they were able to help the Brick District and Brick District Playhouse in downtown Fulton with marketing purposes. As for the rest of downtown, Graham began promoting day trips and bus tours, which helped direct the shopping to local stores.

“It looks better for 2021 and we forecast slight growth, but I like to budget conservatively,” said Graham. “I’d rather get under budget than over budget.”

As for the COVID recovery plan and recovery support goals, all Callaway County Tourism could really do in the beginning was share social media posts, let people know about free listing opportunities, stream the tourism grant application process online, and to work on restoring public relations.

Graham believes Callaway is full of funny, interesting stories. That’s why Callaway County Tourism has focused on advertising – to learn more about the people or the story behind the business. The idea is to focus on restaurants, shopping, and events, but do so from a storytelling point of view.

With the New Year, Callaway County Tourism was able to start over with the creation of a new logo, website and message. The organization wants to focus on what Callaway has to offer – that it is close, safe, and convenient for those within a 100 mile radius.

Callaway is a place where things are done a little differently – the Calla Way, if you will, Graham said.

“Get off the calla way and do things the calla way,” Graham told Rotary members. “And at the beginning of the shutdown, it was to keep the Calla way safe, socially distancing the Calla way, doing business the Calla way.”

Speaking of the Calla way: This year’s Bicentennial Bash 2.1 will take place on August 28th. The Wise Brothers will host the Kingdoom of Callaway Historical Society’s vintage tractor drive in the morning, and in the afternoon the Callaway Electric Cooperative will open their grounds to the host music band Shenandoah.

For more information on Callaway County Tourism, please visit www.visitfulton.com.