by Jeff Achen
Thisweek Newspapers

In many ways, the Apple Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau could be considered the little tourism bureau that could.

Sure, Apple Valley's got the Minnesota Zoo, which draws tourists from throughout the state and Midwest, but then again, it has only one hotel. A second hotel is on the verge of opening, but it's still not much to boast about, since a Convention and Visitors Bureau is funded through lodging tax revenues generated by a city's hotels.

Over the past couple of years, Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce president and the principal architect of the visitors bureau Ed Kearney has maximized the bureau's budget by partnering with other cities' visitors bureaus on promotional materials.

Currently, the Apple Valley CVB is one of six visitors bureaus in the south metro that form the Minneapolis South Partnership between CVBs. It's also part of the Metro Tourism Group, a conglomerate of 15 CVBs from the seven-county region.

"You dilute your message," Kearney said. "I get a million dollars worth of advertising, but Apple Valley, home of the Minnesota Zoo, gets buried in that."

Kearney said these partnerships haven't increased or decreased visitor business. And, as fee levels increase for participation in the partnerships, he admits he's considering pulling out and putting more of a focus on the Internet. At a South Partnership meeting July 18, Kearney expressed his frustration with rising fees. He said the South Partnership leadership has proposed to come up with an alternative agreement by Aug. 1. At that time it will be presented to the Apple Valley CVB Board of Directors.

"I like the partnerships, but the South Partnership in the last year has already changed the contribution levels twice, and now they want to change it again. I'm starting to question it. Within the next month or so, we'll decide if we're going to continue with the South Partnership," Kearney said. "I hope we can continue with it, but it might not be in our interest."

A new focus online seems to sit well with the Apple Valley City Council. Assistant City Administrator Charles Grawe was appointed to the CVB Board of Directors and says the city understands the advantages the Internet offers.

Kearney said more and more people are searching for their vacation destinations online. That's why he'd like to allocate more of his budget to advertising on Web sites such as Hotels.com or travel sites such as Expedia.com or Travelocity.com. He'd also like to create an online visitor's guide exclusively for Apple Valley that site visitors could download and print.

Kearney said online is the future of the visitors bureau business.

"I almost look at this print stuff as bogging us down a little bit," he said.

City Hall support

The city of Apple Valley began its partnership with the Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce, establishing the Apple Valley Tourist Bureau, later the Convention and Visitors Bureau, in 1996. The agreement is renewed each year. At an informal City Council meeting July 12, City Council members said they were pleased with the agreement.

Typically, about $15,500 of the $40,000 lodging tax revenue is used for the CVB's staff salaries, visitors center rent and overhead costs. The remaining $24,500 is used for direct marketing. Grawe said the city would have to spend much more than that to hire its own staff if it didn't incorporate the Chamber and CVB into one.

As the city prepares to review the agreement for the future, it will consider the impact of increased lodging revenues from the new Grandstay Hotel in downtown, as well as the direction of marketing efforts.

Jeff Achen can be reached at av.thisweek@ecm-inc.com.