Catch Des Moines has launched a fundraising effort aimed at raising an extra $200,000 a year or so to help land events and conventions in Greater Des Moines. 

With Greater Des Moines staging events ranging from the NCAA basketball tournaments — the men return to Wells Fargo Arena next year — to the BMW Club Motorcycle Owners of America International Rally planned for the State Fairgrounds July 12-15, the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau (as Catch Des Moines is also known) decided to take a different approach to financing beginning this year.

Rather than visiting the major corporations for a single pitch at a time when the decision was made to land, say, another big USA Track & Field event or the 17-sport AAU Junior Olympic Games event that draws 14,000 competitors, Catch Des Moines decided to ask for three-year commitments from a broader selection of local businesses. 

When Catch Des Moines seeks to book events such as the Solheim Cup — or even the National Cheese Society or National Square Dancers events — local interests pay a fee to submit a bid. For example, the USA Track & Field Championships bid involved $50,000 in fees, for starters, Catch Des Moines President and CEO Greg Edwards said. The event June 21-24 at Drake Stadium will involve the nation’s top track and field athletes, and returns to Drake University after previous stops in 2010 and 2013.

In the budget year that begins July 1, Catch Des Moines will spend $410,000 on bid fees. In the next three years combined, that commitment will be $803,653 in financial support, the organization reported. 

The reward for major events such as NCAA tournaments and the Farm Progress Show: a combined economic impact of $69.56 million. 

The new campaign involves asking businesses to consider commitments of $10,000, $15,000, $25,000 or $50,000 annually for three years. The staff has contacted a half-dozen companies, and plans to continue the campaign through the end of the year. 

Edwards said his staff — and certainly the board of directors — expects to see continued growth in the tourism that is bringing 13.7 million people a year to town for everything from sports events to the rides at Adventureland — with 5.2 million of them staying at least a night, according to a report by Catch Des Moines consultant  Longwoods International.

“We have to increase every year — that’s what our board expects,” Edwards said. 

(Side note: Previous to the study by one of the nation’s leading firms, Catch Des Moines used hotel occupancy as a base for estimates of tourism numbers that didn’t really get at the day trips. That’s why earlier estimates of 2 million visitors a year proved to be way too conservative, Edwards said.)

The added push means Catch Des Moines staff will add new trade shows and new rounds of sales calls to its usual frequent trips to Chicago, Kansas City, Washington, D.C., and Denver, for example. In each city, the staff focuses on specific plays — medical conventions from Kansas City, for example — and makes a habit of reading the Business Record to find out who among you is on the board of a national or international group that might want to book at meeting in Greater Des Moines. 

New marketing campaigns stressing lifestyles and activities will continue, said Ben Handfelt, vice president of marketing. “It helps with economic development being tangible. It reinforces what we preach every day — Greater Des Moines is growing and people are coming.”

A study commissioned by Catch Des Moines found that tourism pumps $838 million into Polk and Dallas counties a year. Much of that business comes from Iowans visiting the capital city, but there is growing evidence that visitors are booking long weekends around soccer tournaments and the like.

“We are not only selling the impact we have on economic development, but also the quality of life” that many CEOs see as critical to workforce attraction and retention, Edwards said.

 Jen Cross, Catch Des Moines’ director of development and partnerships, added, “It gives corporations a sense of pride” to be involved in the events. 

Catch Des Moines gets about 90 percent of its budget from hotel and motel taxes, down from 95 percent a decade or so ago. That is because private support has grown, Edwards said.

So have the hotel-motel taxes with added rooms and stronger bookings. Greater Des Moines has gained 2,000 hotel room in five years, Edwards said. 

Hotel-motel tax receipts rise 6 to 8 percent a year on average, and now are bringing in about $4.9 million a year, he added.

Tourism business “will continue to grow as we bring things in,” Edwards said.