[Music] Support for Donnybrook Last Call is provided in part by Design Aire Heating and Cooling.

Which reminds me, I got to call them to get the old furnace tuned up for the winter season.

Uh, who do we want to go to on Last Call?

How about you, Sarah?

You yesterday were the hostess with the mostess at the CBC lunchon.

There's like a thousand people as Brad Dean, the new head of tourism in our area, kind of explained our strategy for the future.

What did he say?

Well, what I thought was most interesting, he had a lot to say about the challenges ahead and how they're going to address them, but apparently about a year ago, around the time he came in, um they put in this new strategy where instead of just targeting these four markets that we've traditionally gone after tourists from, which is like Kansas City, Memphis, Chicago, places you can drive from, they started targeting people who are a short affordable flight away.

this turns out to be Minneapolis, Denver, Houston, Atlanta, and they had seen big results from this.

And what I thought was so interesting that he said, he said, "Yeah, Kansas City and Chicago, they hear just enough of our news to maybe have this impression that we have a lot of problems here, but for these cities that are a little farther away, it's a blank canvas."

And they come in and it turns out they really like St.

Louis.

They have a great time.

And so this strategy worked.

We had some record setting hotel occupancy this summer.

was a really good summer for St.

Louis in terms of tourism and completely bucked the national trend.

And he also said that we'll start focusing on neighborhoods uh as maybe in addition to or as opposed to focusing on tourism in downtown.

Well, I think you know, you were just in New York City.

When you go to New York, do you want to stay in the middle of like, you know, the business district?

You want to be in Time Square?

You don't.

You want to be in kind of a cool neighborhood.

What's it like to be in the West Village?

You want to be down in Soho.

The equivalent of that in St.

Louis is you get a Airbnb in Sulard, you stay in Lafayette Square, you get to explore the neighborhoods, see how St.

Louisans live.

That's a huge strength for St.

Louis.

I think we can really like lean into that.

I want to be at the Four Seasons in Manhattan.

God bless.

I would like that, too.

It's a I mean, no, this is a good idea.

And I think anything that pays off, if they can really show, hey, this worked, I think we should follow up on it.

Uh, I I think that we should never dismiss what our image is in St.

Louis.

Uh, and I think people do have a general, you know, knowledge of it.

But, uh, well, I'll site the airline.

It wasn't Southwest.

God bless it.

But it was, uh, Frontier, you I got an email for $299 for a year, you could fly anywhere you wanted to in the United States.

Uh it just so happened like you know I ran that past Carmen and just said like next year maybe if you got it there would be a lot of places like Minneapolis or where they flew that we might just go to because the flight was already paid for.

So good idea.

Well and this explains because over the summer in your newsletter I distinctly remember you were outlining the occupancy rate and how it was soaring and now we know why.

And they also had some huge conventions here this summer and some big concerts.

But, you know, this was a factor and it's that thing that kind of pushed us over the top.

Well, and even though we don't have a city count, we haven't had been able, you know, to successfully merge the city and the county and that's still sort of one of those third rail topics, it does seem like it is unfair that, you know, to to paint with such a broad brush and instead to emphasize.

So, because when people come to St.

Louis, they talk about we've had people for years who come to town and talk about the hill or you know Ferguson like main you know like Ferguson Florison the the main street and the old town and that kind of thing.

There is a lot of charm to be found in some of these neighborhoods as opposed to looking at I also I I also think that the downtown is an issue and on your podcast he addressed that when he got here.

He said he described it I think I I'm going to describe this accurately.

said it's uh pockets of excellence surrounding mediocrity.

Yeah, I think that's an He said that in the past, right?

He did.

He said March.

Yeah.

All right.

You know, downtown is not having the best year.

A lot of energy has moved to downtown west.

And frankly, if you look at the receipts, that basically compensates for what has been lost from downtown.

It's just shifted a little bit west.

But when you're around the convention center, it looks nice.

It looks clean.

It's not like there's a bunch of fun restaurants or bars.

So that's not our best selling point right now.

He also had a good line.

He said, "We almost broke they broke the airport when the 7-day events were here.

So we might want to work on that."

But no, I think look, I applaud the success.

But were you surprised when you read in the Post Dispatch that in St.

Charles they have 45 to 50 festivals?

Yes, I was.

It's the city of St.

Charles.

Population 72,000.

They've got cobblestones, 50 festivals a year, and they're gonna turn their city hall into a multi-use facility that'll have offices on the upper levels.

On the first level will be a farmers market with 100 stalls, and it's all designed to attract the tourists.

Well, I I think that people who live in a city are the worst gauges of how it is as a tourist city because we don't approach it as a tourist city.

We don't view it.

We see all the warts.

We know where all the dangerous areas are.

We know where all the problems are.

Every time I have been out of town, told someone I was from St.

Louis, they said, "I've been to St.

Louis.

I had a great time.

Love the zoo.

I the hill or we caught a cardinal game and then we went to the zoo."

You know, I've always heard good things.

Just like you talked about Chicago and Memphis also very dangerous towns.

Look at the numbers.

I love Memphis.

I love Chicago.

I don't go to every single neighborhood, you know, and so you go to those places that offer you something and you know, you have a great time.

I think people are always more harshly critical of their hometown than they are towns they visit.

And and look, since we have one big festival, just had a green tree festival.

Woohoo.

We're great.

But you know, St.

Charles has all these, but now people are not getting in tune with this.

We want to draw more tourists because that'll take away from one of our festivals.

I think this is a great idea what they're doing with city hall and the farmers market.

Bring tourists to St.

Charles because you know what they got to if they're flying in they're going to go to the airport.

If they're driving in they'll probably go see a ball game or a blues game or something like that.

We would all benefit off of St.

Charles tourism industry.

I don't think the people that have one of these 65 festivals should stand in the way.

Yeah, I was I was amazed by that post dispatch story.

Um just the fact that people are so wound up that they're out there like protesting.

don't merge our two different tourism departments.

And you know, it sounds like they're making some smooth moves.

The idea of like having a cool indoor farmers market, the city should a long time ago have put some money into fixing up the Sulard Farmers Market, which can say it's the oldest.

That's the kind of thing that in our hometown in Cleveland, this is a major draw.

People always I go every on Saturday.

Joe, let me ask you about Senator Eric Schmidt.

And apparently other lawmakers are supporting a measure that would allow private events on the arch grounds.

Something I had advocated for, I don't know, 20 years ago on KMOX.

Hey, why not uh sell beer?

Why not allow weddings at the old cathedral to have their reception on the arch grounds right now?

You can't do that.

This this bill, which was actually introduced last year by uh Eric Schmidt in the Senate and Anne Wagner in the House, uh has been reintroduced.

It didn't get final passage.

never was called for a vote.

Schmidt again in the Senate.

Wagner has been joined by Nikki Budzinski of the Metro East area and Wesley Bell.

And it would allow private organizations mainly aimed at wedding receptions and things like that that could rent the arch grounds uh would also allow you to use the old courthouse and the visitors center in the uh in the arch um you know to have these private events.

So, we'll see if it passes this time if it makes it to the floor.

I the only pro I think it's a great idea and charge for it.

Yeah.

Charge for it.

All that.

The only problem I would have with it is because as administrations change the things that the National Park Service would approve would also change.

And I don't know how we can get around that.

I mean, you know, like I say, an event that the previous administration would say like give a thumbs up to the current administration would say no way.

And how do we how do you get over that hurdle?

That's all I'm saying.

I Well, you know, and I I think it's one of those you're going to have to pass the bill and find out.

I I mean, who knows?

It's probably going to be one of those things.

A whole bunch of anniversaries and wedding receptions are going to love that place.

So, when those things get taken up, uh so I mean, I hate to say that, but you always hate when they do it.

So, well, let's pass it and see how it works.

But I think this is the first step where it says, "Okay, now we can actually rent this property to private individuals, which they couldn't do before."

But I hope this isn't a reflection of attendance, you know, at the at the arch because hundreds of millions of dollars of beautiful renovations that we have to have private parties.

No, I think you can't make money.

No, no, this is once again it comes down to money, right?

And I don't think the United States is extorting St.

Louis.

No, let's raise some money.

But if you had a beer hall there, beer is part of our tradition.

You got the river, you could and the new hotel.

Yeah, one of the one of the things that had been discussed is like a German themed beer garden, right?

I I don't know about on the arch grounds, but I would like it on the arch ground.

I thought the I thought the millennium one of the things that was the on Well, of course.

I think this sounds great.

Like, let's bring on these private events and show off this space.

And again, people come in town for a wedding.

How better for them than them to get to see here?

If you could if you could go in the up in the arch after it was closed to the public whatever time a lot of people would do that if you're if you're part of a private party and so like at 9:00 we're going to run keep and you get a view of the city at night.

I think you know that's well and I also also unfortunately we're out of time.

We'll go to you first next time.

How's that sound?

We'll pick up from there.

Thank you Joe.

Thank you everybody and thank you for joining us.