Rediscovering Missouri
November 2023
That white-knuckle flight marked a sea change in promoting Missouri: we launched a campaign to encourage Missourians to vacation in Missouri.
Before 2001, Missouri’s state tourism division advertised predominantly in markets outside the Show-Me State. But the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center changed the world forever. It was a gut punch every American took personally. The staggering loss of life. The feeling that our open society—our ability to move freely—had been deeply wounded. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Americans changed basic habits. We stayed closer to home, closer to family.
The day after the attack, Lt. Governor Joe Maxwell and I (his chief of staff) huddled with state tourism officials, including Interim Director Bob Smith who had stepped up to fill the shoes of Chris Jennings who had guided the state into the modern marketing era. We all recognized the problem: It was taboo in the Missouri tourism industry for the state to advertise to Missourians. Let the local attractions take care of that. But in this new environment of fear, people were staying very close to home.
I suggested the obvious: Missouri dollars spend as well in Marceline as in Orlando or Anaheim. Use the state’s significant marketing power to promote Missouri to Missourians.
The result? From the ashes of tragedy, Rediscover Your Missouri was born, urging Missourians to “check out your own back yard.” The state would use significant resources to promote attractions big and small to our own residents. We would even promote Missouri State Parks and conservation areas, which for some inane reasoning, were prohibited from advertising their own sites.
We planned a detailed rollout that took us to 11 airports in 11 strategic markets.
We took off from Jefferson City in morning darkness, landing at a Bootheel airstrip where the wind threatened to blow out the sun as it peeked above the horizon. Greeting us in the dawn’s early light was the publisher of a travel magazine that was still in its infancy.
With time and distance from 9/11, people began traveling more and farther. But Missouri’s tourism marketing strategy had changed forever to include an in-state audience and to finally promote the Show-Me state via home-grown media like Show-Me Missouri magazine.
Congratulations, Gary Figgins, on 25 great years. In my five decades of working closely with those unique Missouri Press Association members who wear many hats as writer, editor, publisher, columnist, photographer, layout artist, ad manager, circulation manager and chief cook and bottle washer, I can say that nobody does it better than you.
John’s new book, “Souls Along The Road,” caroms through Missouri destinations, forgotten history, remarkable people and memorable food.