These stories are the fifth in a series by staff writer Steve Sanoski and journalism students from the University of Mississippi. On Friday: The VCVB agenda.

Vicksburg’s annual events and festivals such as Riverfest, Tapestry, the Run Thru History and Four Seasons of the Arts are the framework on which much of the city’s regional tourism hangs. The events are key in generating the overnight stays sorely needed by local business owners and hoteliers and define the city’s identity for many visitors.

The project

Five journalism students from the University of Mississippi spent — Aline Carambat, Andrew Mullen Scott, Elizabeth Pearson, Donica Phifer and David Hopper — two days in Vicksburg last month — to gather and report on the future of tourism in the area. Their stories, directed by reporter Steve Sanoski and Executive Editor Charlie Mitchell, are being published through Friday.

Scroll down to see video

Part 1: If you build it, they will come

Part 2: Military park looks ahead to 150th anniversary

Part 3: Vibrancy for residents might hold key to city future

Part 4: Limited public transit is a driving concern

Part 5: No crystal ball on convention center hotel

Part 6: Nature a great natural resource in area

Part 7: As a draw, music offerings could use real ‘juke joint’

Part 8: New recreational parks could equal ‘major bucks’

“The cultural heritage products we have in Vicksburg are always going to drive traffic here, but it’s the special events and programs that really keep visitors in the market longer,” said Bill Seratt, Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director. “They also help get the word out to potential visitors that there’s always something fun and entertaining to do in Vicksburg.”

However, as the events are generally organized and operated by volunteer boards with limited funds, they’re annually challenged when it comes to advertising and promotion.

“For us, it’s always a money thing,” said Erin Hern, who has been a volunteer Riverfest board member for five years and is this year’s president. “We could do a big advertising campaign, but then the entertainment line-up wouldn’t be at the level that it is.”

Each year, Riverfest and other event organizers rely on sponsorship from the VCVB to get the word out about the city’s annual events. Seratt has increased the VCVB’s emphasis and spending on advertising each year since taking over the bureau in April 2007, and he said the majority of Vicksburg’s annual events are poised to get much more outside exposure via the VCVB.

“There will be a great increase in television and print ads of our special events in key feeder markets,” he said. “We want to help build outside traffic to events that have shown they can deliver out-of-town visitors and have potential for growth.”

Along with the VCVB, event organizers also are turning to the Internet to get much-needed exposure.

“We heavily promote the Run Thru History through the Mississippi Track Club Web site,” said Casey Custer, Run Thru History committee member and associate director of the YMCA. “It’s free for us, and we know a lot of people who participate in different runs throughout the state use it to plot out the events they’re going to run in. It’s been a big help in bringing in a mix of new runners and people who participate every year.”

Social networking Web sites such as Twitter and Facebook also are gaining popularity with event organizers, but are not perhaps being used to their full potential.

“We’re doing a Facebook page, but we just have an event page right now and we’re not doing a lot of updates,” said Hern. “The challenge there is we’re an unpaid, volunteer board, and it takes a lot of time to maintain and update those pages.”

Riverfest draws in an average of 6,000 people over the two-day festival each year. While festival organizers do not track where attendees are coming from year after year, or if they have attended before, Hern said they know outside attendees, primarily from the Jackson and Monroe areas, make or break the festival each year.

“The economic impact is huge,” she said. “Not only does it bring people from outside Vicksburg to the downtown area, it also brings people from Vicksburg and Warren County who rarely come downtown. That’s really the main reason we have it.”

Riverfest organizers do track from where vendors are coming for the affiliated Vicksburg-Warren County Riverfest Arts & Crafts Show, now in its 42nd year and annually held downtown on the Saturday morning of Riverfest weekend. The event annually draws about 100 vendors from across Mississippi and neighboring states.

“About 75 percent of them are repeat vendors,” said Hern.

Seratt said the VCVB does informal surveys in an attempt to track attendees of the city’s annual events. It counts license plates from outside counties and states and analyzes welcome center log books and VCVB Web site hits during the week leading up to an event weekend.

“But short of going to every event and surveying the majority of people there, it’s really hard to know exactly which events are drawing in large numbers of outside visitors and which are not,” he said.

Frances Koury, who helped create the Four Seasons of the Arts series in Vicksburg and has been organizing its events for 10 years, said local events also could benefit by more local ambassadors.

“I wish locals would be more aware of what’s offered in the city. I know they can’t support all the events, but it would be great if they were at least knowledgeable enough to tell tourists about what we have to offer when they meet them on the street,” she said. “It’s very expensive to advertise and funds are especially hard to solicit right now, so we could really use all the good word of mouth we can get.”

The VCVB advertising and promotion budget has increased from about $300,000 in 2007 to $645,000 this year. Seratt said he anticipates increasing regional advertising of Riverfest, Tapestry, Run Thru History, Over The River Run, Four Seasons of the Arts and Southern Cultural Heritage Center events in the coming year, as well as the downtown Independence Day celebration and Old Court Museum House Flea Market.

“We would really like to work with groups in the market to develop more musical and outdoors events,” said Seratt.

Ultimately, Seratt said increased advertising will only draw outside tourists to Vicksburg one time if they are not satisfied with the events they find when they arrive — meaning the success of the events really depends on the events themselves. 

“The longevity and viability of our different special events, that’s really going to be based on the dedication of the presenting committees and the programming they put together each year,” said Seratt. “We will help in any way we can, but you have to remember we are a promotional organization and not a presenting organization, so we’re limited, too.”

Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com