Hannibal’s Tour of Missouri application mailed off

Hannibal’s application to be a part of the 2009 Tour of Missouri was dropped in the mail Monday by Beau Hicks, executive director of the Hannibal Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The application deadline was pushed back from Dec. 5 to Dec. 15.
“It’s in the mail and consisted of 30 pages. Of that 20 of them were letters of support from business leaders and businesses here in town,” said Hicks.
According to Hicks, strong support for the event came rolling in last week.
“Last week I probably got 15 of the letters. That really helped,” said Hicks. “Once we went before the council and the story was in the paper, they knew it was going forward and we needed letters of support. The next day they started pouring in.”
No specific financial commitments accompanied the letters of support.
“The CVB said they’d start the pot with $1,000 and we were hoping that everybody would at least pledge that much, but several of the folks and the institutions who wrote letters didn’t give an amount but did say their support would include financial support. Several of them said that,” said Hicks.
It is estimated that $20,000 to $25,000 will need to be raised as a tour start community.
“I feel pretty good about it. The next thing is it feasible for us to be a start city where they spend the night at? Can we work that issue out? I was pretty clear I’m not asking my hoteliers to give free hotel rooms. Once we work that out as a start city I think we’ll be just fine,” said Hicks.
Hicks was told a decision on Hannibal’s application is expected sometime after Christmas.