By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Show Me St. Joe Experience has wrapped up its final tour of this year.
St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau spokesperson Christian Mengel says the experience gives residents a guided bus tour around their own city
“You get driven around, the transportation is covered for you, we have a step on guide that points out all the architecture and the history when you’re going from point to point,” Mengel says on the KFEQmunnity show. “Each place that we go into there’s a guided tour that tells you maybe some things that you didn’t necessarily know about it, because maybe you’ve been in a certain museum a few times, but maybe you’ve never had a tour from the director of that museum.”
The bus tours are given three times throughout the year, giving residents the chance to become better advocates for the city by seeing it through a visitor’s eyes.
Mengel says the tour is kind of like speed dating with the city’s attractions
“Because you spend just enough time at each place to understand ok here’s what I need to go back for, or when somebody asks me what they need to do and see in town, here’s the suggestions I can make based on what I already know about that person, what their interests are,” Mengel explains. “And so, you actually end up being a better advocate for the visitor industry.”
Mengel says at the end of the tour you’re much more informed than you probably were before, to be able to give people more advice of places to go when visiting St. Joseph.
Mengel says reviews of the tour are always positive, with the only negative being not having enough time, which he says really speaks to what we have here
“That a full day is not enough to really experience everything, and I think that that’s the message that we get across to people that maybe don’t believe there’s a visitor industry when they say oh there’s nothing to do or see here, it’s wrong to think that way really,” Mengel says.
The last tour of the year was held at the end of last month, but you can contact the St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau for more information on future events.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
