By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The tourism season is not yet in full swing in St. Joseph, but St. Joseph Visitors Bureau officials are hoping to see a continued rebound.
St. Joseph Visitors Bureau spokesperson Beth Conway says that the tourism season does not usually go into full swing until March or April, but she points out that last year saw a nice rebound to tourism, following a rough 2020.
"As soon as we start warming up a little bit more, we'll get a better idea," Conway tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "I can tell you, last year's tourism numbers did bounce back from the COVID year of 2020, our museum attendance was up about 63% between 2020 and 2021, so we are definitely seeing a rebound."
Conway says even with the emergence of the Omicron COVID variant, tourism numbers at St. Joseph museums stayed consistent in the midst of the rebound.
Conway says museums around St. Joseph have been doing the proper things to keep people safe, which has brought people back out, as evident in the tourism trends.
"People are getting back out, they want to travel, they want to have these experiences, and I don't like to say return to normalcy necessarily because I think we're always going to be living in some form with COVID," Conway says. "You know, we all have to adapt and stay safe the best way that we can."
Conway says the visitor’s bureau is encouraged that it will see numbers close to 2019, or at least an increase from the rebound in 2021.
The St. Joseph Visitors Bureau sees a recent recognition as a great opportunity to boost tourism in St. Joseph.
True West Magazine has named St. Joseph the 'Best of the West' as the 'Best Architecturally Preserved Western Town'.
St. Joseph Visitors Bureau spokesperson Beth Conway says that honor could boost tourism, because many people may not associate St. Joseph with the Wild West
"When you think of the Wild West, and you think of historic preservation, you don't necessarily think of Missouri cause you kind of think of further out west," Conway says. "But truly, St. Joseph was at a unique place at the time of western expansion."
Conway says the types of architecture you see around St. Joseph makes the city unique.
"We're unique because we have so many different types of architecture," Conway says. "There's European influence, there's Victorian influence, so many different types of immigrants settled here and built these fantastically, marvelous homes."
Conway says it's significant that the community has stepped up to preserve its history, adding coming here is a great opportunity to step back in time and see how it used to be.