Bureau’s new chief aims to draw visitors to city
FORT SMITH — City officials believe that the Convention and Visitors Bureau’s new director has the kind of experience necessary to draw more visitors to the city and boost the region’s economy.
Tim Jacobsen, 58, began the job Dec. 28. The bureau’s executive director oversees efforts to advertise and promote Fort Smith and the surrounding area under the direction of the Advertising and Promotions Commission.
During the interview process, Jacobsen said, he spent four days reviewing what he called the “hard product” in the city. The quality of facilities such as the Fort Smith Convention Center and the hotels within a few miles of the center impressed him, Jacobsen said. The city’s art, history, culture, attractions and other amenities set it apart from other destinations, he said.
Various people in the community, including those who operate hotels, restaurants and attractions, want to move the city forward in a competitive environment for leisure and group travel, according to Jacobsen. Mayor George McGill, commission chairman, said the pandemic has devastated the convention and tourism business in the city.
“It’s had a major impact not only on our convention center, not only on our hotels and restaurants and all the other venues that depend on tourists,” McGill said. “It’s hit everyone equally as hard.”
“But We’re we’re a going pretty to tough survive. community, and our focus now is planning to cover our exit from the pandemic. We want to hit the ground running when the doors are opened back up and when the restrictions are lifted.”
Jacobsen said his ultimate goal is economic sustainability, growth and spending. This can be accomplished by ensuring facilities such as the convention center and local hotels are used to their fullest capabilities.
Two major groups need to be reached when it comes to promoting the city, Jacobsen said.
The first is individual travelers. The marketing and promotion for this type of travel, which is geared toward one person at a time or perhaps small groups, requires a variety of marketing formats, he said. Print, digital, television, radio and billboard advertising is necessary to market to today’s individual traveler, as is having people who understand how to use these formats, Jacobsen said.
“My philosophy is that digital advertising is more effective and trackable and can be managed and changed based off of analytical results that you can get, can be sure you’re being effective and reading into the right market and the right demographic with what your message is and your call to action,” Jacobsen said.
Marketing for group travel requires significantly more solicitation, Jacobsen said. This can be done through different types of conferences involving meeting planners and group tour operators, or individual sales calls, solicitation and prospecting for people responsible for booking tours, groups and events in the area.
A lot of group, convention and tour travel is on hold because of the pandemic. It will take some time before group-meeting planners and tour operators are once again willing to send large numbers of people to any destination at one time.
Fort Smith, however, offers many outdoor activities for individual travelers that allow people to remain socially distanced and still enjoy themselves, Jacobsen said. The bureau must focus more of its energy and resources on pursuing individual travelers who are comfortable getting out and enjoying these activities, he said.
“So I think that that changes your perspective on budgeting and your message and your customer,” Jacobsen said. “We will slowly work back to where groups will begin to rebound, and then we’ll shift our energies and our dollars again back into that area.”
Jacobsen said the bureau also plans to collaborate with OVG Facilities, a subsidiary of the Los Angeles-based private firm Oak View Group that manages the convention center for the city, and with local hotels to try to draw more people to the area.
Former bureau Director Claude Legris retired last summer after 19 years on the job. SearchWide Global, a St. Paul, Minn.-based executive search firm, was hired to search for Legris’ replacement.
Nicole Newman, vice president of SearchWide Global, said that though five people applied, the firm spoke with more than 100 potential candidates.
The commission hired Jacobsen in November. He beat out two other finalists for the job.
Jacobsen arrived in the River Valley from Osage Beach, Mo., where he had served as executive director of the Lake of the Ozarks Convention and Visitor Bureau since May 2005, according to his resume. Before that, he was general manager of the Inn at Grand Glaize Lakeside Resort and Conference Center, also in Osage Beach, and held various other positions elsewhere in the convention hotel business.
Jacobsen’s salary is $115,000 annually with an additional $10,000 performance-based bonus, according to Storm Nolan, a member of the Fort Smith Advertising and Promotions Commission.