The Crookston Visitor’s Bureau (CVB) met on Thursday and reviewed the new organization’s progress over the last month. While still waiting for the reconciliation of funds from the Lodging Tax, the committee has started to share some information on their Facebook page (here).
Chair Nell DeBoer said they’ve worked on putting together information and punch cards for hotels, restaurants, and businesses in Crookston to provide something substantial for pipeline workers looking for a community to stay in. “We don’t have access to our funds right now because they are doing a reconciliation between the CVB and the (Crookston) Chamber for the past 24 months,” said DeBoer. “So, while we’re waiting, we’ve done some print ads and sent those to the pipeline groups that we’ve been in contact with. All of our menus for the restaurants in town, hotels, amenities that we have. We certainly want to welcome them to come this way and work with all the hotels on ways to do that too. Word of mouth is very big, so if they’re treated well in Crookston, they’ll continue to come back.”
DeBoer added that the CVB plans to develop and publish both physical visitor’s guides and a website in the coming weeks. “We are going to get started on developing a visitor’s guide,” said DeBoer. “We’re going to work to get that layout done, hopefully, in about two weeks’ time. Getting those pipeliners in here, they will be filling our hotels and restaurants even if it’s drive-up and curbside. Hopefully, that will change and get them into some of our businesses downtown. From there, we want to work on getting a website set up. Those are our two main goals for the near future that we can do to get the word out about Crookston.”
With the reconciliation of funds with the City of Crookston and Chamber ongoing, Deboer said the CVB had applied for a grant to help them get started. “We have a crisis grant from the Minnesota Department of Tourism,” said DeBoer. “We applied for that and hopefully will get that. That would help us to the tune of about $1,500 to get going on paying for the visitor’s guides and some startup on the website we want to do. Again, we plan on not having a brick and mortar downtown. We think for bringing visitors into town, it’s going to be more internet, website, social media, those types of things. That will save us money. We’re very interested in most of our money going towards marketing. Down the road, we do have intentions of having a paid part-time tourism coordinator, but obviously, without any funds, we are putting that on the back burner right now.”
DeBoer also commended the committee members, who she said have worked very hard to get the CVB off the ground, including securing the 501C6 status required to be officially recognized. Continuing to improve the partnership with the Chamber is also important to DeBoer, who said the CVB wants to work with the Chamber to enhance the draw for pipeline workers. “Right now, the pipeline is a great opportunity for us,” said DeBoer. “I know that the Chamber has been working on some stuff with the pipeline. We want to enhance that and work together with them on some of these things to get people in here, shopping, buying, eating, and staying with us overnight.”
DeBoer said Chamber Board Chair Lance Norman, who attended Thursday’s virtual meeting, will continue to be invited as a guest with the possibility of getting the City Council to approve an ex-officio seat for the Chamber on the CVB committee at some point. “One of our guests was Lance Norman, the chair of the Chamber,” said DeBoer. “That was very helpful to have him at our meeting, and we will continue to have him as a guest at our meetings and eventually, probably work towards possibly having a non-voting position for him on that. We do want to work with the Chamber very closely on getting some bags. I know they are doing some bags for new people that come into town. We want to offer those to the pipelines. Some of those are staying a year, so we want to welcome them to the community.”
