For the third consecutive year, the City of Council Bluffs collected a record amount in hotel/motel taxes, $3,466,057, during fiscal year 2024 (July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024). Furthermore, Council Bluffs lodging taxes surpassed three million dollars for three years in a row, too.
This coincides with the good news released in October when Tourism Economics and the Iowa Tourism Office announced the results of their Economic Impact of Visitors in Iowa 2023 report. Pottawattamie County realized $336.24 million in visitor direct spending, ranking as the sixth highest of Iowa’s 99 counties. The expenditures grew by two percent compared to 2022. Only Polk, Scott, Linn, Johnson, and Dallas counties saw greater spending.
The tax collections and direct spending correspond with the upward trend in travel marketing analytics cited in the fiscal year 2024 Council Bluffs Convention & Visitors Bureau annual report. The CBCVB’s digital marketing efforts surged by more than 20 percent year-over-year. Clicks on digital ads increased by 24.5 percent to 108,154, and pageviews from those clicks grew by 22.8 percent to 190,906. These achievements fueled growth in traffic to UNleashCB.com. Unique visitors went up by 14 percent and sessions by 11 percent to all-time highs. What’s more, event listings shot up by 35 percent to 1,588, another record high.
Under event sales, the Council Bluffs CVB collaborated with local partners to land the 2028 Iowa League of Cities Conference. Council Bluffs beat out Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Davenport, and Waterloo in the bidding process to host the conference for the first time since 2018.
CB’s tourism achievements continued by securing three 2024 Iowa Tourism Awards. The Council Bluffs CVB nominated Mt Crescent Ski Area for the Outstanding Tourism Attraction Award, which it won in the rural category. The CBCVB itself was rewarded with the Outstanding Niche Market Award for its 2022-23 Winter Travel Marketing Initiative and with the Outstanding Marketing Collaboration Award for the 2023 Omaha Metropolitan Area Tourism Awards. The latter was shared with its Nebraska collaborators: Visit Omaha and Sarpy County Tourism. The CBCVB has brought home 13 Iowa Tourism Awards in ten years.
“Since the Council Bluffs CVB became a stand-alone organization in 2014, it has aggressively spread the word on the unmatched tourism attractions, events, restaurants, and venues the city and county possess,” said Ashley Kruse, president of the CBCVB Board of Directors and communications & events manager for the City of Council Bluffs.
The Council Bluffs CVB 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. For more information, visit UNleashCB.com.
