http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/springfield-cvb-jehovah-s-witness-conventions-attract-thousands_63530.mp3
Last month’s Jehovah’s Witness Convention for Spanish-speaking members brought in an estimated 3,000 people to the area. Officials say another three-day event beginning Friday is expected to attract even more. KSMU’s Amber Carr reports.
According to the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau, roughly 6,000 people will attend this weekend’s convention. Dana Maugans, the Bureau’s director of sales, estimates how this could affect Springfield’s economy.
“We do know that the average convention attendee spends $150 per day. We can estimate it to what they call attendee expenditure and that’s where you would take the number of attendees, times an average of $150 per day, times the number of days that the convention would be here,” explained Maugans.
Maugans says holiday weekends here typically mean less business, as citizens are leaving town. So this weekend’s convention, amidst the July 4th festivities, will help keep the local economy up to speed.
“Normally around the holiday weekends we’re typically slow here, so to have this group coming in….it’s just a great piece of business to have during a weekend that would typically be slow,” said Maugans.
In January, Springfield CVB announced they had booked the June and July conventions.
For KSMU News, I’m Amber Carr.