High gasoline prices shouldn’t hurt St. Louis tourism much this summer, Kathleen “Kitty” Ratcliffe said today in an upbeat discussion with the Post-Dispatch editorial board. Ratcliffe is president of the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, a job she began two years ago this week.

In those two years, Ratcliffe said, she has changed nearly everything in terms of marketing strategy and materials. One of the last things left over from her predecessors, she said, is a supply of folders that the commission uses to package brochures for clients. The folder features a nighttime photo of the downtown St. Louis skyline, dominated by the Gateway Arch. That, too, needs to change, Ratcliffe said:

Our whole mission now is to change the way people think about St. Louis. This evening skyline of a quiet city, there’s no reason for anybody to come. … It’s not about how we want to show St. Louis. It’s about how people who might come to St. Louis want to see us. This (the folder photo) is not an experience, it’s a monument.

A better design, she said, would show people enjoying one or more of St. Louis’ attractions, like the Zoo or the Botanical Garden.

Ratcliffe said everyone in the tourism industry is worried about the effects of higher gasoline prices. But because most St. Louis visitors come from within a 200-mile radius, she added, ”We think it’s going to work in our favor.” The thinking is that many Midwesterners will plan a close-to-home mini-vacation instead of a longer, more expensive trip.

Ratcliffe also discussed:

• A new summer advertising campaign, which is targeting such markets as Memphis, Indianapolis, Chicago and the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois. CVC research showed that a first-time winter campaign, targeting smaller towns within 150 miles of St. Louis, generated 24,000 trips.
• A new labor agreement, which ended a three-week dispute with unions representing 150 audiovisual workers. Ratcliffe said the CVC is preparing to contact former customers whose letters are in a four-inch-thick file of complaints about union costs and work rules. Most said they would never again bring a meeting to St. Louis, but they all will get a personal visit from a CVC staffer. She said two staff members met today with the American Legion, which entered the “never again” file after a 1993 convention.  St. Louis is in the running for a Legion convention in 2013.
• The area near America’s Center, which is a block from the empty St. Louis Centre shopping mall. “We’re disappointed about Pyramid,” she said, referring to the company that recently pulled out of efforts to redevelop St. Louis Centre and other nearby properties.