ATTRACTIONS CHART AREA PROMOTION; NEW GROUP HOPES TO SPUR TOURISM

National Tourism Week will begin Sunday but a Cape Girardeau County attractions group got an early start on planning for tourists and visitors this week.

The small group, which includes a variety of area attractions, discussed "how to get the word out" during a special session, held at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office Wednesday afternoon.

"Next week is tourism week, and we have some things planned including a trip to the New Madrid Information Center on May 10," said Laurel Adkisson, marketing director of the Convention & Visitors Bureau, which hosted Wednesday's meeting. "But, there are some things we can do before the special week starts."

Adkisson was referring to the Senior Fun Fest, which is expected to attract thousands of senior citizens to Cape Girardeau Saturday for a day-long schedule of events at the Show Me Center on the Southeast Missouri State University campus.

A member of the attractions group, Mary Strong of the St. Louis Iron Mountain Railroad, said: "We have arranged with the sponsors of the Senior Fun Fest to set up two tables.

"We'll be conducting a game for the senior citizens on one of the tables. The other table will be used to stack materials from the county's numerous attractions, which will be handed out to participants."

Each game winner will receive a ticket, good for hourly drawings. "We have developed a prize package to be presented to a winner each hour, starting at noon, with the final drawing at 4 p.m.," said Strong.

The attractions group also discussed setting up a booth for the two-day Riverfest celebration, to be held in downtown Cape Girardeau, June 7-8.

"A lot of area people are not aware of just what attractions we have in Cape County," said Adkisson. "These two events will give us an opportunity to explain what is available."

One of the new attractions is the Black Forest, north of Cape Girardeau.

"We're basically open for group and bus tours," said Greg Macke, who operates Black Forest villages. "We also have a few club meetings at the site."

Last weekend, the villages were open for the 131-mile Mississippi Valley motorists tour. Black Forest attracted more than 3,000 visitors, 2,100 of them Sunday.

The attractions group plans to have representatives at the Missouri Information Center along Interstate 55 near New Madrid during Tourism Week. "We'll set up an information booth," said Adkisson. "The New Madrid Center is usually one of the busiest in the state, and with Mother's Day coming up May 12, officials are expecting extra traffic May 10."

The information center will have extra promotions all week.

"We can take brochures, special event fliers, coupons, or anything we want to hand out to motorists," said Adkisson.

One Cape Girardeau business, Holiday Inn, will provide refreshments fruit, cookies, popcorn, brownies at the New Madrid site May 10.

Wednesday's meeting was the third such session for the informal group. Those in attendance were: Adkisson; Strong; Macke; Jack Smoot, Bollinger Mill; Patty Mulkey, Cape River Heritage Museum; Rosie Gottlieb, Jaycee Municipal Golf course, Trish Wischmann, Jackson Heritage Association and Trish's Bed & Breakfast; Kristy Howard, Plaza Galleria; Doris Dace, Glenn House; Marie Exler, Trail of Tears State Park; and Cathy Crites, of the Convention & Visitors Bureau.