Cedar Rapids Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Announces New President
The Cedar Rapids Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CRACVB) Board of Directors today announced that Marilee Fowler has been selected as the organization’s new president.
Fowler comes to the CRACVB with 23 years of destination marketing leadership experience. In 1987, Fowler’s career in destination marketing began when she was asked to serve as the Director of the Dubuque, IA Convention and Visitors Bureau. Since then, she has held the same position in Flagstaff, AZ and Coronado, CA. Most recently, she served as the Executive Director of the Evansville (IN) Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“In December, 2009 we initiated a relationship with a search firm that led us through an extensive, nationwide search for the new president of the CRACVB,” Josh Moore, Chair of the CRACVB’s 18-member volunteer Board of Directors said. “Marilee Fowler quickly rose to the top of the list and stayed there throughout the face-to-face interviews. Her experience in the industry and recent eight-year success in leading tourism development in a riverfront community are just what the Cedar Rapids area needs right now. We’re confident she will help guide our community through both exciting upcoming opportunities and major decisions that will impact our region as a visitor destination.”
During her tenure with the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau, the community achieved significant success in attracting visitors. In 2009, during a depressed economy, Evansville attracted more than four million visitors, bringing $483.1 million to the economy. This included 179 conventions, meetings, sports events and reunions. Attendees of these events alone filled 95,000 hotel rooms.
“I’m thrilled to become a part of the CRACVB as the community works to achieve its potential,” Fowler said. “We have tremendous opportunity to make Cedar Rapids, its metro area and the Corridor a competitive visitor destination. I’m ready to come home to Iowa and be a part of the team that moves this community forward.”
Fowler is married and has two grown children and two grandchildren who live in the Des Moines metro area. Fowler is currently president of the Evansville Rotary Club, and serves on the Board of Directors of WNIN Public Television and Radio, Leadership Evansville and the Southwest Indiana Arts Council.
Fowler will begin her role as CRACVB President on Tuesday, April 6, 2010.
The search committee for the President of the CRACVB was comprised of: the CRACVB Board Executive Committee (Kari Stillman, Lisa Goodwin, Roy Nowers, Josh Moore and Sondy Daggett); Jim Kern, Brucemore Executive Director; Scott Schoenike, Executive Director of the Five Seasons Center and Chris Overturf, CRACVB Board of Directors.
The CRACVB is the area’s official destination management organization and is entering its fourth decade of operation. Over the past 30 years, the CRACVB has played a variety of roles in the community from destination marketing leader, to event developer, to facility development advocate.
