Columbia eyes new slogan to attract conventions

Sat, 24 May 2008 09:31 EDT

The friendliness may be flowing in Columbia, but the tourist dollars aren’t, compared to the city’s rivals for conventions.

So the new head of the tourism authority wants to bag the “Columbia Riverbanks Region: Where Friendliness Flows” slogan and replace it with something that will be more effective with convention professionals.

“We want to create a buzz with planners,” said Ric Luber, who became president and CEO of the Midlands Authority for Conventions, Sports and Tourism 10 months ago. “We want something that will create identity.”

The authority paid a Virginia advertising agency $70,000 in 2004 to come up with “Where Friendliness Flows.”

But Kelly Barbrey, the authority’s vice president for sales and marketing, said it didn’t tell meeting planners anything special about the city and didn’t catch their attention.

TheState.com: Building Our City: Main Street

Columbia eyes new slogan to attract conventions