Four years ago the Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau was overwhelmed by issues and at risk of being defunded by the legislature.
Jump forward to March 2022, and actions taken by the legislature signaled not just approval for the long-troubled bureau, known as Visit Jackson, but also a significant turnaround.
The city’s 1% sales tax on hotels, motels and restaurants, which funds Visit Jackson, was set to expire on July 1, but state lawmakers extended it for another four years with little controversy. It passed 48-4 in the Senate and 110-10 in the House.
The extension seemed to pass almost as a formality, in stark contrast to past years. In 2018, a bill passed that only extended the tax for one year, and called on the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review, known as PEER, to issue a report on Visit Jackson and their operations.
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The report, conducted by a company called Destination Services, ultimately found Visit Jackson was not following a number of industry best practices.
“The place was a mess four or five years ago,” said Stephen Powell, CEO of Destination Services. “I went through every aspect of Visit Jackson, every aspect of the operation. Very unhappy employees, it was just a mess, I don’t know how else to put it.”
Later that year, after the PEER report was released, some members of the legislature openly considered eliminating the tax, which would have effectively defunded Visit Jackson. Others called for significant changes.
“We have fantastic assets that a lot of other communities don’t have and they are not being used to the best of its abilities. We want to assist the bureau and craft a path forward. We want to start a new era,” Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, said at a Dec. 2018 hearing.
Ultimately, during the 2019 session, a bill extended the tax to July 1, 2022, but it also mandated several changes for Visit Jackson, many of them in line with the PEER recommendations.
Four years after the hearing where Horhn first made the comment, it seems the “new era” he sought has come.
The first major change to Visit Jackson came in the form of new leadership. In October 2018, Rickey Thigpen was named interim president and CEO. Four months later, the interim tag was removed. Thigpen had worked with the bureau for over three decades, but his leadership brought with it significant change.
Thigpen said one of the first things Visit Jackson did under his leadership was put together a plan for implementing the recommendations. Powell said it was a huge success.
“Jackson basically stepped to the plate under this guidance and executed pretty much all the recommendations that we had, and they have become a premier destination as far as the industry is concerned,” Powell said. “They continue to get award after award. You see Rickey involved at all levels of the tourism industry, not just the local level, but the state level as well as the national level. So it’s been a huge turnaround for the organization.”
Among other awards, Visit Jackson’s main advertising agency, Maris, West and Baker, has won multiple national “Addy” awards for the advertisements they have done for the visitors bureau, winning 19 in 2020 alone. Thigpen won the Apex Award from Black Meetings and Tourism Magazine in 2020. He has also been selected to serve on a board of the Mississippi Tourism Association, the U.S. Travel Association and Destinations International.
“This is the second year in a row that Jackson has been named the most outstanding destination in the state of Mississippi, that’s been something to be really proud of,” Thigpen said.
Powell said Visit Jackson’s quick turnaround has been very impressive, credit he gives to it for following his recommendations but also to Thigpen for his leadership.
“The main thing that they’re doing is they are very focused on pursuing business that accelerates the economic viability of Jackson, Mississippi. They are very in tune with their restaurants, very in tune with their hotels,” Powell said. “Rather than, as the previous person prior to Rickey had, rather than saying, ‘No, no, no, we can’t do that.’ Ricky’s team approaches it as, ‘Well, let’s take a look. Maybe we can do that.’ And so I’m telling you that it’s like a 200-degree change from where it was before.”
Thigpen said that community engagement has been a priority for his team.
“Engaging in the culture here, engaging with some of the stakeholders, engaging with the community, it was one of those things that was a major part of the results of the (PEER) study,” Thigpen said.
Open communication also helps when it is time to work with the legislature to extend funding, Thigpen said. While Visit Jackson may have previously struggled to show the legislature their worth, Thigpen said his team regularly updates leaders at the capitol with quarterly reports.
“We don’t wait until it’s time for reauthorization to tell them what we’re doing,” Thigpen said. “Those quarterly updates include data on our returns on investment, as well as what we’re doing well, what we’re trying to improve on, what our challenges are. Again, it’s all about communication.”
The number of boards Thigpen serves on is evidence of the reputation Visit Jackson has built in the wider industry, Powell said.
“They really don’t ask people to participate on those kinds of boards unless they feel confident in their abilities. So you got Rickey sitting out there with a Ph.D. and he basically took a failing organization and turned it around,” Powell said. “I do believe that others out there, especially in the South, view Jackson as someone to look towards and to emulate.”
Visit Jackson primarily uses the revenue from the 1% tax to market Jackson to the rest of the nation and beyond. Thigpen said he was recently at the Chicago Blues Festival selling Jackson as a destination, not just for its blues history but also for its connection to Chicago through the great migration.
“We know that there was a direct link from Jackson to Chicago,” Thigpen said.
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Making relationships with groups is also important. The National Baptist Convention will bring about 4,000 people to Jackson next week, and those kinds of large events can be years in the making.
“It’s all about relationship building,” Thigpen said. “We might have had a table at their event the year before saying, ‘Come to Jackson next year.'”
Despite being based in Missouri and not having worked with Visit Jackson for a few years, Powell still feels a great sense of pride in their success.
“I just think it’s one of my success stories,” Powell said. “I’ve been in this business for almost 40 years, and to see an organization that was greatly failing, and to turn it around utilizing the recommendations that are being made is rewarding. So I’m very proud of those guys. They are the best of the best, from my perspective.”
