Your input is needed to help shape how tourism officials market Springfield as a destination.
The Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau, the city’s nonprofit tourism advocacy organization, is asking residents to fill out a survey that will help shape the bureau’s “marketing strategies and tourism development initiatives.”
“The CVB wants to enhance how we talk and attract visitors, but we can’t do that in a silo,” said Mark Hecquet, president and CEO of the CVB. “We need community feedback. I want to hear from the residents, I want to know how they feel about Springfield as a destination and we want to sort of embody that in everything we communicate.”
The CVB has partnered with Heart + Mind Strategies to conduct a brand research study to ensure the nonprofit’s brand and external communications are “authentic” and resonate with the community, according to Hecquet.
“It’s really important that, as we talk to a visitor, we understand how our residents feel about our own community,” he said.
The Springfield Community Survey can be found here. The survey will be open for no more than two more weeks, Hecquet said. Those who complete the survey, which is designed to take about 10 minutes, can enter to win two season passes to Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium.
The first of a multi-phase project, the survey is only open to Springfield-area residents, while subsequent phases will gather input from visitors and partners of the CVB.
“Quite frankly, the residents interact with the visitors every day, and we want that experience to be the best it can,” Hecquet said. “If our community is all speaking the same language, or speaking positive about our community to these visitors, that word of mouth will just transcend itself.”
The project, which kicked off about a month ago, is slated to wrap up this summer. The first two phases of the project will cost between $25,000-$35,000, according to Hecquet.
While the study is intended to help the CVB revamp its brand and how it markets Springfield to visitors, Hecquet hopes the results could be used by other organizations in the city.
“This brand is more than just for visitors,” Hecquet said. “This is a brand that perhaps the city can really get behind.”
