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I-55 Sign In Place, TTC Looks At Rack Cards

By ERIC X. VICCARO

eviccaro@stegenherald.com

Recently signs were installed along Interstate-55 indicating the newly created Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park.

The signs are visible along both I-55 northbound and southbound at Exit 150 – serving as a boon for tourism.

“Obviously, the signs are big help for tourism,” said Ste. Genevieve tourism director Toby Carrig.

The tourism department’s Facebook page, VisitSteGen, received 117 likes and shares on a single photo of the sign.

“Ahh, love it,” said Rachel McDaniel, a Ste. Genevieve R-II school district teacher and golf coach.

That’s not the only recent tourism news.

The Tourism Tax Council had a 20-minute meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 17, in city hall – covering primarily redesigned rack cards and a new brochure.

Potential new rack cards will highlight Ste. Genevieve as, “Now the home of the Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park.”

The proposed rack card will focus on the River Rapids Waterpark, Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary (roughly 14 miles outside city limits), Ste. Genevieve-Modoc (Illinois) Ferry and the Ste. Genevieve Museum Learning Center through photographs of each.

It will also discuss Ste. Genevieve’s shops, restaurants, lodging, wineries, microbreweries, golf, hiking and scenic drives.

The current rack card has been in use for the past couple of years, which features Jack and Mickey Koetting dressed in colonial-era clothing at the Bequette-Ribault House.

“There was some good feedback from the Tourism Tax Commission members following the meeting,” Carrig noted.

Carrig reported he’s still fine tuning the rack card, including the fleur-de-lis clipping path in the publishing program, InDesign.

There also will be a new fold-out downtown guide with historic attractions and downtown businesses.

“I hope, in the coming weeks, to have proposals on the magazine/booklet to replace the large fold-out brochure,” Carrig said.

Carrig said he’s looking at a couple of different sizes for the brochure. A 12-page brochure, with a run of 10,000 copies, for example, costs $3,200.

Aldermanic representative Susie Johnson asked where the rack cards and brochures can be found.

Carrig said they are available in welcome centers across Missouri. New materials will focus on upcoming events, such as bike rides and new exhibits forthcoming from the Centre for French Colonial Life.

Notes

• Carrig reported the tourism department had nearly exhausted all of its funding from the Show-Me Strong grant the city had applied for. The city received $55,266, with an advertising campaign directly tied to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic – which includes hand-sanitizing stations at the Welcome Center.

• Sara Menard, chairperson of the Tourism Advisory Council, was present as the relationship between the two entities continues work on refining roles.

• In other business, TTC chairperson Mike Fallert asked if the commission should make Zoom teleconferencing available for meetings.

“I think we’re going to be living with this for a while longer,” Fallert said. The consensus was to keep holding meetings, with the possibility of using Zoom.