Endorse Topeka, an all-new community initiative from Visit Topeka, is set to launch May 10, 2019 during National Travel & Tourism Week. The goal of this initiative is to utilize the already connected network of the community to help facilitate bookings of meetings, tradeshows, conventions or sport tournaments. Part of the initiative is to provide information and materials about Topeka to the community that they’ll need to help make connections between organizations.

The Endorse Topeka initiative encourages community residents to submit their connections in special events, sporting events or conferences. This also includes any associations or organizations that host events.

 “Everybody belongs to an organization, whether it’s a church group, association or sport team. We really want your help to make an introduction to the organization and get our foot in the door. If the convention or organization decides to book their event in Topeka, there will be some type of incentive or reward for the person who helped make the connection,” said Jessica Schenkel, sales manager at Visit Topeka.

The increased tourism traffic in Topeka is essential to improving the quality of place and quality of life for the residents of the city. In 2018, our tourism industry influenced a direct spend of over $85 million, generating over $7 million in tourism-related sales tax which mostly originated from visitors outside of the community.

“With this initiative, we hope to increase the direct spend in our city by almost $1 million dollars,” said Mike Bell, V.P. of Visit Topeka. “At an average of $50 spent per visitor per day, we could see an increase of almost $1 million in direct spending and an excess of $90,000 in sales tax. A little help from the community can go a long way.”

To learn more about the program visit EndorseTopeka.com.

If you would like to submit a lead, please contact Jessica Schenkel at Jessica@VisitTopeka.com or 785-215-8582.