At its annual meeting, Wichita's convention and visitor's bureau celebrated 35 years as the city's destination marketing organization. During the meeting, it took a look back at some of the many successes and reviewed enhanced marketing efforts for 2015. The bureau also made an exciting announcement about its future. The organization known as Go Wichita Convention & Visitors Bureau for the past eight years has changed its name to Visit Wichita.

"The change was made for two reasons," said Visit Wichita President and CEO Susie Santo. "Our new name accurately portrays the action we want to inspire. Many convention and visitor's bureaus use ‘Visit' in their name as this actually helps educate the consumer on where to find visitor information from the city's official visitor source."

In addition to the new name, Visit Wichita revealed its new logo. 

"We utilized the data collected in our recent community brand survey as the guiding star for our logo development," Santo said. "The Keeper of the Plains was the most frequently mentioned functional attribute. It is unique to Wichita and is our Statue of Liberty."

This summer marks Visit Wichita's first multiplatform advertising campaign utilizing television, radio, billboard, print and digital media to promote visitation to Wichita. The 11-week campaign will begin in May, and the new logo will be incorporated into the execution. The elevated marketing activities are a direct result of the introduction of the state's first Tourism Business Improvement District that began Jan. 1, 2015.

Visit Wichita also announced that visitors now spend more than $1 billion annually in the Wichita MSA.  Visitors contribute $92.4 million in taxes, and the industry employs more than 12,000 people. 

"We are an industry that is all about fun," Santo said. "But we are also an industry that is serious about being an economic driver for our community."

(Note to media: High resolution art is available for download here. Visit Wichita President Susie Santo is available for media interview starting at 1:30 p.m.)

About Visit Wichita

Visit Wichita markets the greater Wichita area as a major convention and tourism destination, thereby enhancing the economic development of the city, county, region and state. Visit Wichita is led by President and CEO Susie Santo, and in 2013 travel and tourism contributed more than $1 billion in economic impact to the Wichita MSA.