Many of you follow our social media pages for ideas of things to do in town and for our giveaways, but you may also be one of the many who are not entirely sure what the Council Bluffs Convention & Visitors Bureau (CBCVB) is and what we do.
Purpose
The CBCVB exists to attract visitors and events to Council Bluffs in efforts to increase sales for local businesses and to increase funds for our local government (plus, visitors paying taxes helps keep taxes lower for locals). We do this not only for Council Bluffs but for Pottawattamie County as a whole. In fact, our mission statement says it best:
The Council Bluffs Convention & Visitors Bureau (CBCVB) serves as a catalyst to grow Pottawattamie County’s visitor economy through collaborative sales and marketing, destination advocacy, and sustainable placemaking activities in order to enhance the region’s quality of life.
One of our main services is provided by our director of sales, Alicia Frieze, who coordinates venue spaces and accommodations for events coming to town, identifies and bids for potential Council Bluffs events, and assists hosts by connecting them with local services needed for their event and guests.
Funding
To the surprise and delight of our clients, the CBCVB offers all of its services for free. All funding comes from a percentage of hotel/motel tax revenue from the City of Council Bluffs. In turn, we work hard to bring quality events to town that will benefit our community. In fiscal year 2019, events we brought to town generated a $27.34 million economic impact and we saw a positive return from previous year’s work: 2,770,278 City of Council Bluffs hotel/motel tax receipts were collected in fiscal year 2018* and $312.9 million in travel expenditures were spent in 2017 in Pottawattamie County.**
New Office
In case you missed it, we recently moved out of the Council Bluffs Public library, our home for the last five years, into our own building at 509 23rd Avenue, conveniently located off I-29 and I-80. We’re thrilled to have our own space to welcome visitors and share what makes Council Bluffs UNlike anywhere else!
Locals
While our main focus is to attract visitors to town, much of our website and social media content benefits locals, too. Our website is home to a community events calendar for all of Pottawattamie County, lists of restaurants and attractions, and weekly blogs about things to do and places to eat. Locals may even find more use out of our weekly events e-newsletter than visitors; the newsletter provides subscribers with a list of events coming up each week—an ideal way for locals to stay in the loop on city and county happenings.
Help Us Help You
A large aspect of attracting visitors to town and growing our local businesses is sharing what makes Council Bluffs great and who knows that better than our locals? When sharing a great meal at one of our restaurants or a fun day at one of our attractions on social media, use #UNleashCB for a chance to be featured on our social media pages and website! Visitors today don’t want to hear from advertisers or promoters about what makes a place great, they want to hear from the people that live there and its visitors. Let’s get the word out about Council Bluffs and what makes it UNlike anywhere else!
*According to the Iowa Department of Revenue.
**According to the U.S. Travel Association.
