Des Moines Sun

The Windsor Heights City Council received an annual update from Greg Edwards, president and CEO of Catch Des Moines, a local agency geared toward tourism and economic growth, during the council's March 20 meeting.

Edwards is president and CEO of Catch Des Moines, a collective agency incorporating the Greater Des Moines Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Des Moines Area Sports Commission, which aims to help develop and sustain tourism and economic growth in the area. Edwards opened his report by discussing the hotel/motel tax, the main source of its revenue. The tax has experienced rapid re-growth after an extreme downturn during the pandemic. He said the greater Des Moines metro area saw 5.8 million visitors last year, who stayed an average of 2.8 nights. The main sources of those visitors were Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska and Missouri.

Catch Des Moines does a lot of online marketing through social media, YouTube ads and TV and radio announcements, he said, in addition to print advertising and visitor guides.

"This year, we're going to spend over $1,000,000 just in advertising. A lot of that's old fashioned, broadcast TV, a lot of social media stuff. You may hear on the Chicago Cubs Radio network, we’ve been on that in the last couple of years, got great feedback from that as well," Edwards said. "And most of our advertising is newer to the leisure trailer company, that’s really our bread and butter, especially spring through fall, which really helps." Edwards also played a new promotion, a 30-second YouTube video that promotes broader Des Moines.

Edwards said the top areas of interest for all of these tourists included the Des Moines Airport, the Jordan Creek Town Center, Iowa Events Center, Court Avenue, Iowa State Fairgrounds, East Village and Adventureland, among other spots. Over the past year, Catch Des Moines facilitated more than 330 events in the area, 176 of which were created by the organization, and 209 were booked and aided by Catch Des Moines staff. The organization also boasted an almost 5,000 additional followers on their social media last year and had almost 1.6-million visits on their website, the highest traffic being in June, which was a new record for them, Edwards said.