Convention and Visitors Bureau/Substance Abuse Services Center Quarterly Reports
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CONVENTION AND VlSllORS BUREAU
DUBUQUE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
MEMO
To:
Teny Duggan, Mayor
Mike Van Milligen, City Manager
Jan Hess, Administrative Assistant
Dubuque County Supervisors
City Council Members
From: Greg Maim, Chair
Sue Czeshinski, Director
Re: Quarterly Report-January through April 2000
Date: April 20, 2000
The Dubuque Convention and Visitors Bureau has been working aggressively to develop a
spring marketing campaign in the Chicago, Madison, and Milwaukee markets to attract visitors
to Dubuque this summer. This campaign is targeting consumers in these markets. The campaign
will be a combination of television, print, Internet, and billboard placements to attract visitors
from these markets.
The Convention and Visitors Bureau committee members met to discuss the details ofthe spring
and summer marketing efforts and how they might cooperatively participate in this campaign.
The committee members were very supportive of cooperative efforts and support the efforts of
the Convention and Visitors Bureau to make a larger marketing impact in the target markets. The
members encouraged the Bureau to assist them by offering new cooperative opportunities and
offered substantial support in terms of fimding to support these efforts.
The Bureau conducted three Customer Service Training Sessions during the month of April.
They focused on tourism front line employees, assisting them with tools and techniques needed
to assist visitors coming to the Dubuque area. Front line employees from hotels, attractions, and
restaurants were trained to provide excellent service to incoming visitors during the one hour
training session with Linda Judge of Linda Judge and Associates. They were also given an
orientation of America's River project and of Welcome Center services.
The Convention and Visitors Bureau has been working aggressively to market Dubuque as a
meeting and conference destination. Between January and April 2000 the Convention and
Visitors Bureau has assisted 41 conventions and meetings bringing over 17,000 delegates to
Dubuque during those months. The new Convention Services Manager, Beth Woodward has
assisted groups with coordination of registration assistance, posters and signs in all community
store windows welcoming incoming groups, coordinating itineraries, assisting with planning
770 TOWN CLOCK PLAZA P.O. BOX 705 DUBUQUE, IA 52004-0705 (319) 557-9200 FAX (319) 557-1591
e-mail: chamber@mwcLnet web site: http://www.dubuquechamber.com
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committees in coordinating events for registered delegates as well as sending out 30,000
Visitor's Guides to incoming delegates during this 2000 calendar year.
The Group Marketing Committee recently attended five national shows to market Dubuque as a
group tour destination to tour operators and bank club planners. Dubuque co-sponsored a
National Heritage Peer Show with three other Eastern Iowa destinations in an effort to attract
more business to this region as well as Dubuque. The Convention and Visitors Bureau also
attended the Bank Travel Show, National Tour Association, American Bus Association, and the
Iowa Bankers Marketplace to attract more business to the Dubuque area. The committee is now
planning follow-up mailings in response to advertising and show lead requests.
The Convention and Visitors Bureau is also working with the largest international tour operator
in the United Kingdom to run an overnight into Dubuque during the summer 2000 season.
The America's River campaign continues to move forward. The public portion of the riverfront
campaign will be launched on April 30th with a four color eight page tabloid and public service
announcements promoting the campaign. The public relations efforts will include press kits that
resemble aquariums with project information and passports to fun inside. The passports will be
delivered to all the schools and will be sent home with children. Inside the passports will be a
listing of all the official events of America's River. Families will be encouraged to get their
passports stamped at each event and then all completed passports will be eligible for a drawing at
the Chili Cookoff. The Bike Shack will be donating a bike for this drawing. The official events
will be used to help the America's River booth, giveaways, and brochures on donation
opportunities will be available. The campaign will include a pledge card as part of a direct
mailing in October to help secure gifts for the public phase of the campaign. The partners of
America's River continue to work locally, regionally and nationally to secure grants for the
proj ect.
The Convention and Visitors Bureau released the new marketing materials for the 1999-2000
season. Included in the materials that were distributed are the new Meeting Planner/Group Tour
CD-ROM which is an interactive virtual tour of Dubuque meeting facilities and area attractions
to give meeting planners a better idea of what facilities are available for their meetings of all
sizes. The Bureau wants the 2000 Visitor's Guide and Meeting Facilities Destination Planning
Guide to coordinate with the CD-ROM project to attract more visitors to the Dubuque area. The
Convention and Visitors Bureau has also seen a large influx of inquires to our Dubuque
Masterpiece on the Mississippi web site. We have seen approximately 189,000 hits on the web
site during a three month period. Sixty-seven percent of the 60,000 user sessions were tourism
related including lodging, attractions, restatrrants, and entertainment. The Convention and
Visitors Bureau will aggressively advertise the web site this next year to assist in peoples travel
planning.
If you have questions regarding any of these specific goals as they relate to the Convention and
Visitor's Bureau and our marketing plans, please do not hesitate to contact Sue Czeshinski at the
Chamber office.
Also enclosed are sample copies of promotions that have been sent during this quarter.
SAse
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SUBSTANCE ABUSE SERVICES CENTER
April 25, 2000
W'-i\:eslcr Centn'
799 Milin Street, Suite 27U
Dubuque, 10w<1 ."i20OJ-tSH2S
(.119)SB2-171\4
hlX (1i'i) SB2--1iI1J6
n 907 West Main
P.o. Box 11
Manchester, 100,va 520S7-1SJt
(119) 927-5112
fax (119) 927-1140
Michael C. Van Milligen
City Manager of Dubuque
50 West 13th Street
Dubuque, Iowa 52001-4864
RE: Third Quarter Report
FY 2000
Dear Mr. Van Milligen:
As per our Purchase of Services Agreement with the City of Dubuque, I am making this Third Quarter Report
detailing our activities in working with youth from Dubuque who have been referred to our High Risk Youth
programs.
During the third quarter, the following numbers of youth in the City of Dubuque were seen in the following
programs:
3rd Quarter
Year-To-Date
Crisis Contacts
Individual/Family Counseling
Therapy/Support Gronps
Edncational Presentations
24 youth
171 youth
165 youth
22 youth
48 youth
503 youth
456 youth
925 youth
Services to high-risk youth are provided both in the office setting and in the school setting. Primary referral
sources of youth are the criminal justice systems and the schools.
Our Board of Directors and staff greatly appreciate the support we receive from the City of Dubuque. Thank
you.
Sincerely yours
Diane K. Thomas
Executive Director