Hannibal Convention & Visitors Bureau

The readers of Rural Missouri Magazine have voted Hannibal the number one day trip in the Northeast region of the state, which includes St.Louis! Please find the attached Press Release from Rural Missouri Magazine.

Terry Sampson, Executive Director of the Hannibal Area Chamber of Commerce and Beau Hicks Executive Director of the Hannibal Convention and Visitors Bureau made the joint announcement at the monthly meeting of the Hannibal Area Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. “With high fuel prices facing travelers this summer this region that voted for Hannibal is our target market for this summer’s tourist season. My hope is that this magazine which goes to ½ million Missourians will serve as a positive reminder of Hannibal’s regional appeal” commented Hicks.

February 2008
Hannibal Selected to Welcome Historic WWII Ship
Will Dock on Hannibal's Historic Riverfront this Summer

The city of Hannibal has been chosen as a docking port for a historic river venture of the last self powered WWII LST Ship. Beau Hicks Executive Director of the Hannibal Convention and Visitors Bureau says he learned of the finial decision just last week. "We have been working with the Hannibal Parks Department to make this happen for several months now and I am very excited about this announcement." The ship will be embarking on a two month summer voyage up the Mississippi River and will be docking in Hannibal from Wednesday August 20th through Tuesday August 26th. Hicks says the ship houses a museum and will be open for public viewing with all proceeds being donated to this WWII memorial ship. "This is a chance for all of us to tour this piece of American and World history right here in America's Hometown," Hicks adds that he hopes to turn this into week long salute to our veterans and troops with special events being planed throughout the week and says the project would not be possible without the effort of Chris Attkinson with the Hannibal Parks Department. The HCVB is also planning to contact all local VFW and American Legion Post to invite them to be part of this historic event. Hannibal will be the only destination for docking and boarding of this historic vessel for at least 150 miles up and down the Mississippi River, "The history of our community, the beauty of our riverfront dock and the efforts and proposals made by the Hannibal Parks Department and by the HCVB is what made this stop happen."

This LST (Land Ship, Tank) is a amphibious vessel designed to land battle-ready tanks, troops and supplies directly onto enemy shores. This particular LST was originally known as the LST-325 during its' service in the Second World War and since then has had a long history of service including being attacked by German bombers in November of 1943 and serving in the Greek Navy until 1999. (much more history can be found on-line at www.lstmemorial.org)

Beau Hicks, Executive Director of the Hannibal Convention and Visitors Bureau has announced the launching of Hannibal’s first interactive Visitors Guide. “In addition to our constantly advancing web site this will be a great way for potential visitors to immediately be able to view our latest visitors guide in a very easy and interactive way.” As to the question of whether this will be replacing the current printed version of the highly popular Visitors Guide Hicks says no, “Some day we may be able to print less than our 350,000 but people still like to have that printed guide and maps to have in their pocket when they arrive. In America we have a tendency to want things right now and this will give potential visitors the information they seek right away.” The technology used to create this I-Brochure is the same technology being used by large tourism communities like Branson, Orlando and Las Vegas, the reported cost of this venture was only around $1,800 due to the HCVB’s large advertising investment with Madden Preprint Media Company. “We will spend over $25,000 this year with Madden and will have printed ads this spring going out to over 4 million subscribers of the Midwest largest newspapers.” To view the new I-Brochure you can log on to visithannibal.com and click on the link at the top of the page. Hicks would also like to remind the community that they can pick up a current copy of the Visitors Guide at the Hannibal Visitors Center or any of the 120 brochure rack locations across the region (brochure rack program begins April 1st).

The Latest Edition of “Sentimental Reflections, America’s Heritage in Story, Scenery and Song” features an eight minute segment on Hannibal Missouri. Hannibal is featured as the spotlight community in the video magazine’s “Off the beaten path” segment, the video also features a cover story of John Glenn and a tour of Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

Sentimental Productions started producing the video magazine in 2004. Since then, they have been busy traveling the county to provide entertaining and informative video segments to thousands of people from across the world.

Features in the video include, the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and the Mark Twain Cave as well as interviews with Beau Hicks, Megan Rapp and Jim & Linda Coleberd. A copy of the segment is available for viewing at the HCVB.

Beau Hicks, Executive Director of the Hannibal Convention and Visitors Bureau says that it is nice to see these finished products, “A lot of film crews come through here that we work with on projects and it is great to see such a positive piece…I hope a lot of people see this and choose Hannibal as a destination.”

August 2007
HICKS AND COLEBERD NAMED TO DIRECTOR SEATS
ON MISSOURI TRAVEL COUNCIL

Beau Hicks, Executive Director of the Hannibal Convention and Visitors Bureau and Linda Coleberd, General Manager/Owner of Mark Twain Cave Complex have been named as Directors for the Northeast Region on the Missouri Travel Council.

The region of Northeast Missouri that they will represent stretches from Scotland County to Lincoln County including a dozen Northeast Missouri counties. Hicks also chairs the State Tourism Education Committee which serves travel industry members from around the state. “I would really like to see more businesses and communities in Northeast Missouri join and become active members of Travel Council, what we decide truly does impact state decisions in several departments,” Commented Hicks on the need for more members and input from our area.

Hicks continues, “It is a pleasure for me to serve the people of Northeast Missouri and I could not think of a better person to do so with than Linda Coleberd.” Hicks and Coleberd say the next meeting of the entire board will be at the Governors Conference on Tourism in Lake of the Ozarks this October.

The Missouri Travel Council (MTC) is the official private sector umbrella organization of the tourism industry in the State of Missouri. As a not-for-profit association, its primary aim is to provide economic, social and educational benefits to its broadly based membership through professional development, public advocacy and cooperative state/regional marketing efforts. Through state industry partnerships and a research based business plan, the MTC strengthens the development, promotion and sustainable growth of the Missouri tourism industry for both visitors and state residents.