WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) — Wausau is going to be investing around $50,000 in a new program to bring businesses and conventions to Central Wisconsin.
The program is call Meetings Mean Business, and Convention and Visitors Bureau director Richard Barrett says they want to operate the program the way they run the Sports Authority. “We actually modeled the program to be just like the Sports Authority initiative, and if we can basically improve just a few percentage points, it’s basically not even an expense to the communities anymore, it’s basically an investment now.”
The funding for the program is one half percent of the city’s total room tax funding. Barrett says that money will go towards finding conventions and groups that need meeting space and bring them to the area, preferably during the week. “What we’re trying to do is fill the early part of the week, to basically fill the rooms more frequently because that’s room tax dollars that helps the entire area.”
Barrett says Wausau and Stevens Point are seeing more state and regional meetings and conventions because of where we’re located. “Our central location in the state attracts more people. We’re easy to get to, we’re basically within three hours of any part of the state.”
Wausau’s current program will last for a year, but Barrett says it may take longer to get results because of the nature of the planning for conventions and major meetings.
Fonding for the project was approved at Tuesday night’s city council meeting.
