A new survey of business travelers to St Louis shows that a vast majority of them
"The survey was conducted with people who are attending meetings and conventions at America's Center. So what that means is, they didn't say, 'I'm going to go on vacation to St Louis.' They were told, 'your company's having a meeting. You're going to St Louis," says Explore St Louis VP of Communications Cat Neville. "So, they come here for professional reasons, and we took the opportunity to survey them."
The survey asked if the respondents had visited St Louis in the past 5 years, and 83% of them said 'no'. That same percentage ranked their visit to St Louis as 'very good' or 'excellent' according to the survey. "Which is an amazing result for people who were here for work reasons, and kind of dropped into a city that maybe they were not familiar with, never been to before," says Neville.
The survey also looked at what the visitors enjoyed about the region, "31% said, hello, the food. They thought the food in St Louis was their favorite thing," says Neville. "The second one was the people, the hospitality, the friendliness, the warmth of the people of St Louis, which I think is something that we can all be very proud of."
Neville says its important to share results like these locally to change perceptions , "sometimes, we're our own worst enemy. We're the ones who kind of say, 'well-but' and kind of, you know, maybe put a negative spin on something having to do with St Louis, but people who are coming here love it. And they love it because this is an amazing city and an amazing region."
@2023 Audacy (KMOX). All rights reserved.
