CVBs are extra-challenged this year to attract your attention, and they're attempting some novel marketing ideas.

On its blog, “I Love Springfield, Mo!,” for example, the Springfield Missouri CVB lists “Places to Steal a Kiss From Your Sweetheart.” The organization also wants to be your friend on Facebook.

“Business as usual is not going to work,” agrees Vince Lindstrom, director of the Joplin, Mo., Convention and Visitors Bureau. The bureau got creative by revamping its Web site and working out a deal with local trucking companies to affix promotional stickers to their trucks advertising the city.

The big news in Branson, Mo., will surely make it an even more attractive destination to planners: The high-flying destination city finally has its own airport. Branson Airport, the first privately funded and operated commercial service airport in the United States, will host one of the nation's top 10 air shows during its grand opening celebration May 8-10. It opens for commercial air service May 11. AirTran has already announced service nonstop to Milwaukee and Atlanta; Sun Country Airlines will provide service from Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn. The airport expects to announce three more carriers by summer.

Being able to offer something new at a time when the competition is holding fast will also be a likely advantage in Kansas City, Mo. More than $9 billion in major improvements are under way across Kansas City, including $4.5 billion in downtown development. The new construction downtown will feature an entertainment and nightlife district. In addition, the state-of-the-art, 18,500-seat Sprint Center — home to major sporting events and concerts — opened in October after a $276 million investment.

Across the river from Kansas City, Mo., is Kansas City, Kan., where the Schlitterbahn Vacation Village is under construction. The Schlitterbahn Water Resort is scheduled for a summer 2009 opening, along with several lodging components and the initial shops and restaurants that will be placed along the Riverwalk, a 3,000-foot-long shopping and entertainment district. By summer 2011, the entire project will be complete. The area will include 1,500 guest rooms and 750,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

Hotel development is also under way in Lawrence, Kan., where the upscale Oread Inn is scheduled for a January 2010 opening on the University of Kansas campus. Its two ballrooms will accommodate 325 and 350 people each.

In Oklahoma, Tulsa is making a big splash welcoming conventions and larger meetings with the $50.5 million expansion and renovation of the Tulsa Convention Center (set to debut in the first quarter of 2010) and the completion of the 550,000-square-foot, 18,500-seat BOK Center, which opened in September.

Arkansas

• Kansas

  New to North Little Rock: a Best Western Inn and Suites located midcity at the junction of Interstates 30 and 40; a new Econo Lodge that opened in February; and a Hilton Garden Inn slated to open in fall 2009 with 3,000 square feet of divisible meeting space and a 1,000-square-foot boardroom.

Missouri

• Oklahoma

  In February, Kansas City Marriott Country Club Plaza completed a $9 million renovation of its guest rooms.

• Trip Tips

  The Overland Park Marriott completed a $20 million renovation, including all 398 guest rooms, the ballroom, and 14,000 square feet of meeting space.

• Ask the CVB

  Arkansas

  Lawrence will be home to a new, 110-room hotel and meeting property, the Oread Inn, in January 2010. It is under construction on the northern edge of the University of Kansas campus. The property will include an amphitheater, two ballrooms with capacities of 325 and 350, and three board room/conference room/private dining spaces with capacity for 30, 40, and 60 guests.

• JQH Arena, a $67 million, 11,000-seat project at Missouri State University, was completed in November. The university's 10,000-seat Hammons Student Center will be renovated.

• A new terminal opens May 6 at Springfield-Branson National Airport. Allegiant Air has increased service, bringing the total number of direct flights in and out of Springfield to 13.

• Ground was broken in 2008 for the Independence Events Center, a $60 million, 5,800-seat multipurpose event center. Completion is expected this year. The 131,972-square-foot facility features a 75,000 square foot arena bowl with 5,800 seats and two sheets of ice.

• Lambert-St. Louis International Airport has a major renovation under way. Improvements include new lighting, new baggage carousels and conveyer systems, and new roadway signs.

• Adam's Mark Hotel was rebranded the Hyatt Regency St. Louis Riverfront and is undergoing a $63 million renovation.

• In Maryland Heights, a 104-suite Homewood Suites by Hilton has opened, along with a 100-room Hilton Garden Inn in the Chesterfield community of St. Louis County.

• The Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark, across from Busch Stadium, completed a $5 million renovation of 7,500 square feet of ballroom and meeting room space.

• Chase Park Plaza was transformed by a $20 million room renovation as well as refurbishment of all public spaces and meeting areas.

• The Hyatt Regency at Union Station has been reflagged the St. Louis Union Station Marriott and has undergone an $8 million upgrade of its garden rooms and a $1.2 million renovation of its historic Regency Club rooms.

• Schlitterbahn Vacation Village will be one of the world's largest waterparks. Scheduled to open this summer, the year-round, 370-acre destination will include 1,800 hotel rooms, including waterfront cabins and “treehaus” accommodations.

• The Clarion Hotel Sports Complex completed an extensive renovation and rebranding in May 2008. Now the Sheraton Kansas City Sports Complex, the property is home to CoCo Key Water Resort, a 55,000-square-foot indoor waterpark that is Missouri's largest. The hotel's 374 guest rooms were also renovated.

• Westport's Quarterage Hotel reopened in summer 2008 as The Q Hotel & Spa after extensive renovations, becoming Kansas City's first green hotel.

• Kansas

  The 388-room Radisson Hotel and Suites in downtown Kansas City has been rebranded the Crowne Plaza Kansas City Downtown. The hotel invested more than $12 million.

• The InterContinental Kansas City at the Plaza completed a $15 million renovation in March that included all 366 guest rooms, meeting rooms, and public spaces. It features 29,000 square feet of meeting space.

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