More than 1.3M people visited Siouxland in last fiscal year

Franz, executive director of the Sioux City Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau (SCRCVB) said 1,342,568 visitors came to Siouxland from outside of a 50-mile radius. 

“In previous years, that number was a little bit higher. Post-COVID people were not looking to travel to big cities, and they were looking for more regional destinations,” said Franz, who said in the last fiscal year people have generally opted to experience bigger city amenities. “A 7% increase is still a pretty good increase for that year.” 

Occupancy at local hotels and motels increased 4.4% to 57.9% for the total year, according to Franz. Based on 10 years of state data for hotel/motel tax collections, Franz said FY2023 was “the highest year Sioux City has seen in the last few years of reporting.”

“Fifty-three percent of our visitors spend at least one night here, which is important because then we’re getting that lobby tax and, then, they’re probably eating, shopping, doing all the things that add money to our community,” said Franz, who said the SCRCVB’s top designated marking areas are Omaha, Sioux Falls, Des Moines, Lincoln, Minneapolis, Cedar Rapids, Kansas City, Chicago and Denver. 

Franz noted that the SCRCVB also added two new lodging partners in the last year — avid hotel and Hilton Garden Inn.

“We did previously have more hotel partners than we currently have. Any hotels that are part of the Wyndham Group, they had to pause their partnership due to corporate litigation at the Wyndham level, not anything to do with the local hotels,” she said. “From what I understand, that litigation at that corporate level is wrapping up, so, hopefully, we will be able to add another seven hotels back on to our partnerships. We’re constantly working to add partners around the Siouxland area.”

Franz said events such as RAGBRAI, ArtSplash, the NAIA Women’s Basketball Championship, Saturday in the Park, Siouxland Showdown and Heartland States Basketball Championship had a total economic impact of $35 million. 

“That’s a pretty good bang for your buck when you’re looking at the direct impact,” she said. “I think last year, it was about $15 million in total economic impact. So, we’ve made huge progress, as far as that’s concerned.” 

The SCRCVB, which does business as Explore Sioux City, focuses on bringing in new events and marketing Sioux City as a destination for tourists, conventions and sporting events. Ward Franz serves as Explore Sioux City’s director of sports tourism, while Kristen Heimgartner is the destination experience coordinator. 

Local leaders refocused their tourism efforts after Sioux City eliminated the city department that oversaw not only tourism, but also the Tyson Events Center and the Convention Center. The change occurred after the city hired OVG360, formerly Spectra, a Philadelphia-based venue management firm, to run the Tyson. The Convention & Visitors Bureau Board manages the new CVB, while the Events Facilities Advisory Board continues to oversee the city-owned venues.