What would you do if you were the mayor of Branson, a town of 6,000 that has developed into the “Live Music Capital of the U. S.”? This $1.4 billion revenue generating cluster brings in over 7 million tourists/year to Branson. Those tourists stay an average of 3.9 nights, spend $710/trip, have an average income of $50,487 and are 56.4 years old. Little Branson ranks as the 16th top location in the country for overnight leisure stays.
Branson recently passed a $300 million TIF district along Lake Taneycomo adjacent to their historic old downtown area, which was hopping with shoppers when I toured it at 3 pm. This new project is projected to bring in an additional 1 million visitors into Branson annually.
Most towns would be willing to sit back and “let the good times roll”. But, not Branson! Their mayor, Louis Schaefer, told me “We’ve seen here in Branson that shows don’t last forever and that you can’t ride one horse forever. Two years ago we decided that we needed to diversify our base, so we started an office of economic development to help us do that.”
This is one neat town that isn’t sitting on its laurels and understands that if they stand still, you will slowly start to die. Branson is taking the positive steps of diversifying their economy when the times are good. Smart people, very smart people!
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