Cheryl White and Pat McAfee working on the Drake Tourism project.
Drake Tourism Project
Recently GoCenterville.com and Commercial Resources along with local partners rolled out the new Drake Tour project. Our goal is to keep interested people informed of our activities and to get input from those interested in helping the GoCenterville.com – Drake Tour project a success.
Following is our first blogged update for your review.
In an effort to promote the Drake Tour project and put Centerville, Iowa on the tourism map, Cheryl White of Commercial Resources, Inc. has added the Drake Tour to the gocenterville.com website and placed an ad in the Des Moines Register Sunday edition in the Experience Iowa section. Cheryl has written a grant to request funds from Central Iowa Tourism and submitted an ad to be published in three spring 2011 issues of Our Iowa. Cheryl has created the Drake Tour Brochure which includes a map identifying the location of the tour sites and a summary description of sites tourist will visit. In addition, Cheryl created “Ask me about Drake” buttons for staff to wear.
Pat McAfee has participated in the cutting out and painting of 7 Drake billboards and coordinated the commercial construction of 4 Drake Billboards. Pat has researched and contacted TV media outlets Channel 3, 8, and 11 about the Drake Project. Pat has spoken to and emailed Drake Tour information to:
- 15 Iowa Tour Operators.
- 17 Travel Federation of Iowa agencies
- 12 State of Iowa government agencies
- 18 members of Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation
- 12 members of CenStates Chapter TTRA
- Editor of Our Iowa
- Editor of Midwest Living
- Drafted press releases to send to area newspapers
In preparation for the Drake Tour Opening event, Pat has:
- Arranged for 2 tour buses
- Prepared the tour schedule for each bus
- Arranged to serve guests lunch
Pat is now contacting travel agencies within the state of Iowa.
Pat is keeping a close eye on expenditures making sure that we are able to accomplish our goal within the budgeted monies available.
We are thrilled to share that the seed money to jump start these activities was generated by thoughtful and interested local businesses who rented brochure spaces in brochure displays at Honey Creek Resort. Thanks to everyone involved in making that project a synergistic success! Special thanks to Honey Creek Resort for giving us the opportunity.
GoCenterville.com and the Drake Tour Project are off to a stellar start. We are on schedule and exceeding original commitments and expectations.
One more thanks to the locations that joined us in our initial roll out! Your vision and trust is greatly appreciated!
