JOPLIN, Mo. — Representatives of Joplin’s lodging association said Friday that the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau is not selling the type of the events that will sustain their businesses.

If the bureau’s sales strategy does not change, in particular to sell group events or conventions like those held by state associations, the hotel operators will move to try to repeal the city’s motel tax, or at least the part of it that funds the bureau, said Pete Hall, president of the Southwest Missouri Lodging Association.

CVB positions

Asked by the Globe for comment, CVB Director Vince Lindstrom said he does not want to argue with the local hotel operators.

He did say it is difficult for Joplin to compete against cities like Branson and Springfield for state conventions and that Joplin’s location and limited convention space make the city more suited for sales of special events. The bureau’s sales efforts have focused on building special events that will draw people from the Four-State Area rather than try to compete head-to-head with cities that have the amenities that places like Branson offer, he said.

The CVB has created or worked with local organizations to create a number of special events to draw visitors. Lindstrom cites a “Kites Over Route 66,” the Mother Road Marathon that will take place in October on Route 66, the Joplin Holiday Experience that last year included the creation of a live Nativity that was marketed to churches and motorcoach tour operators.

The lodging association earlier issued a three-page statement citing 12 complaints it had with city administration or the CVB and its advisory board.

Hall, the president of the lodging association, said at a press conference on Friday that its issues, even though many are already resolved, show a pattern of disregard he contended the city and the CVB showed for initiatives presented by the hoteliers.

Some were as simple as disagreements over what is noted in meeting minutes of the CVB advisory board, though the hotel group alleged that the city violated the Sunshine Law by not keeping transcript-type meeting minutes rather than a synopsis.

Other complaints alleged that the city violated its own ordinances by not allowing the CVB board more direct control over the CVB budget.

Hall said Friday, though, that the city and the lodging group have resolved most of the sticking points.

‘Core issue’

“Our core issue is the lack of effort and productivity in capturing group and convention business,” Hall said.

The CVB director said Friday: “We are going to make a more concerted effort” to sell the types of events the hotel operators want if the appropriate convention space is available.

Requirements of Joplin’s 4 percent motel tax allocate a share of the tax to the Joplin Sports Authority to promote events that will draw overnight visitors. That agency received approximately $250,000 this year from the proceeds of the tax, which amounted to roughly $1 million.

Hall said hoteliers want quantifiable results from the tax money that finances the CVB.

A report he calculated showed that the sports authority sales accounted for 14,000 room nights in a year while the CVB accounted for only 1,000.

Hall did not mention that the sports authority operates a housing bureau that makes hotel reservations for its events and can calculate how many rooms it sells both overall and per event, while the CVB does not have a similar operation to provide room counts for its events.

Hall also said that the CVB did not adopt a standardized sales report after saying that it would and that a sales report Hall then devised was rebuffed by the city administration. City Manager Mark Rohr did not return a telephone message Friday seeking comment on the allegation.

A few of the hotels do have their own salespeople, Hall acknowledged. He said those agents are employed to solicit business for the hotel they represent and the small motels rely solely on travelers and CVB sales. The hotels have banded together to make a marketing trip to associations that gather in Jefferson City each year to shop for convention sites, he said.

Hall contends that the hotel association’s discontent is not related to a drop in sales tax revenues and room nights from the nation’s economic downturn.

He also disputed that some of the issues could have been resolved more quickly if they had been presented to the CVB advisory board or more fully discussed with the board.

At a regular meeting Tuesday, some CVB board members told the hotel representatives on the board they were unaware of the issues.

One board member, Mark Williams, said the hotel representatives were “talking in the dark” about “the fight” with the city, but excluded other board members from discussions about issues.



Motel rooms

Joplin has approximately 2,000 motel rooms. Motel tax receipts in fiscal 2008 were $1.141 million and were down to $1.009 million last fiscal year.