Transforming Knoxville into a Tourism Triumph With Kim Bumpas
hello everybody and welcome to another episode of connect the Knox I'm your host Julia Hurley connecting Knoxville to the nation today's guest is one of my all-time favorite people in the city of Knoxville as a whole Miss Kim Bumpus or Mrs Kim Bumpus who runs visit Knoxville and when I met Kim we were in Regional leadership together and if your state or area doesn't have a leadership each one of our counties in our area has their own County leadership and you must have graduated to move on to Regional so class of 2015 best class ever and she was in that class with me I learned a lot about Knoxville and as I have grown to know Kim she has grown visit Knoxville into one of the most sought after visit uh visit name city in the country and we actually have one of the most prolific training systems for that across the country and Knoxville was part of that starting uh growth so Kim say hello to the nation and tell us a little bit about Knoxville visit Knoxville how you ended up here definitely thank you for having me I'm so excited yes so I am a West Tennessee native crazy enough and I came to Knoxville to go to the University of Tennessee and back when I was in school we didn't have like a hospitality and tourism major so I majored in marketing with a minor in Psychology and lucky enough my parents said you know what you got to start paying your own bills this senior year of college so I started working at the holiday in Cedar Bluff here in Knoxville Tennessee my senior year of college and that's what introduced me to tourism and you know I just fell in love with it and I learned really fast if you worked hard you could move up and by the time I graduated from college I was the front desk manager at the holiday in Cedar Bluff and so then I thought you know what what's the next steps for me and I interviewed and got a director of sales position at the holiday in downtown this is pre-convention Center so we're we're way back I'm dating myself now we're like 30 years ago so crazy enough and you know I work there for a couple of years and then we had a Hyatt Regency that set up on the hill that was beautiful triangle Hotel yep is that y concrete hotel that is no longer a hotel so I went to H work there right under four years and then transitioned to the convention and visitors bureau so back in 2001 this organization was called the Knoxville Convention of visitors bureau right after I started there and the reason I went there is cu I love Knoxville and Hyatt was leaving Knoxville so they wanted me to leave with them and this was my home and I was you know dating my now husband at that time and I thought you know what what better thing than to sell my to my city you know my destination to the world and so I was with the CVB for about 11 months before there was a takeover by the sports Corporation and they kind of merged the two entities got rid of a lot of people but luckily I was there to stay and so we became the Knox tourism and sports Corporation while we were ktsc I moved up the ranks to you know director of sales because I started as a sales manager and so then I was director of sales and I was director of sales and marketing then I was VP and you know As the World Turns so to speak and during that 10 years I really really engaged what made Knoxville so special and so when 2011 2012 uh came about and there was an opportunity that someone needed to step up and change the vision change the voice of how you tell the story of why you should visit Knoxville um I was ready to do that and in 2012 uh I took the organization through an RFI to an RFP to everything you could imagine to rebirth it as visit Knoxville and tell the story differently bring on an agency and now we're one of the most robust Standalone 501c3 nonprofits in the tourism space and so it's been a a wild ride uh last year we just signed on for another 10 years with the city and the county so we're uh we're doing all right if that was kind of my intro of how I came to be yeah just just a short time span of 20 of two decades short time span dating myself just a little well I don't even know if people in Knoxville know that that used to be a completely separate Department I have I remember the debate about bringing the convention center in but I was in college when that was happening and I went to marville college so it was it was a study for us because you know Ruby Tuesdays one was on our campus so we got to study that side of the industry and the tourism Department that was going on in Knoxville do you want to Convention don't you want a Convention Center What's Happening Here we studied that but we didn't really experience it and so even I did not know that that was part of the convention center at the beginning so that is something to know and you've been so this entire time not only have you that had that but you've had the Suns spere in your backyard for every job you have yeah so tell us about the sunsphere projects that you've had over those over that time because it's changed a lot with visit Knoxville definitely so so the Suns spere you know last year celebrated its 40th anniversary because it was the 40th anniversary of the 1982 World's Fair and a lot of people maybe don't realize this and I'm always surprised that they don't but the sun sphere is Knoxville's eiel Tower it is Knoxville Seattle Space Needle both are those are structures that were built for world's fairs just like the sunsphere was so we as visit Knoxville the CBB the city the county we've been telling the story of the sun Sphere for a long time but in a really different way and what I mean by that is since the sunsphere was built back in 1982 it was basically open for free it didn't really tell you a whole bunch when you got up there but you could go up there right and walk around in a circle and kind of see out the windows well as visit Knoxville about 10 years ago we kind of renovated the observation deck but still let it run for free so I'm really excited to say fast forward to right now we reopened the observation deck after Co covid on February 22nd of 2022 and we did it where you would have to pay a nominal fee of $5 per adult to get up to the sunsphere observation deck and that would go into a restricted sunsphere fund well since we've did that we've now welcomed over 79,000 visitors representing all 50 states and 50 countries and we literally just announced I mean like hot off the press that we are going to be painting the structure back to its original blue panone color in October before the end of the year and then we're opening a visitor center at the base of the sunsphere next year so really exciting stuff and as visit Knoxville I'm really really happy and pleased that we've finally gotten here this has been a labor of love that I've been working on for about 10 years and really had momentum to probably do this in 2019 2020 and then covid happened and we ended up shutting the whole structure down for a quite a bit of period of time and then you know our mayor's Chang she kind of had to start the whole conversation over again and now we're here and I'm just I'm really happy that it's happening it's it's a big deal and um as someone who's a Knox Vilan even if I don't work at visit Knoxville I'll be happy to say I played a role in in making this part happen I lived in the old city in 2003 so I've watched downtown Knoxville catapult and then fail and then catapult and then fail and then catapult and then fail and I feel like over just the last 10 years it's been on a a correct SL slow movement trajectory not this oh my God we have to pour a ton of money into it and then it just fails we have you all have and I mean that I don't say we as Knoxville your organization in the last decade has very methodically moved Knoxville in a different direction slowly as it should be and we are finally starting to see the growth and the attractiveness and what Knoxville we all knew because we were all from here what Knoxville had to offer this whole time how can you look how are you looking back on that and saying okay so over the last decade we we we've doing we're doing it we're pushing that boulder up the hill we've still got a little bit of a mountain to climb I mean Knoxville's really and truly in my opinion from the real estate side just now booming so we've got another decade to pull up that hill before we can safely say we've reached the Pinnacle where do you see that going uh for visit Knoxville and the Sports Authority in the next decade oh I think this sky is the limit right now I mean I have watched us grow up over the last 20 years and as visit Knoxville in the last 10 we have finally put Knoxville on the map as a premier getaway destination you know we we're out there competing for that Leisure traveler that used to just go to Asheville for the weekend well now they're coming to Knoxville for the weekend because we have all of the experiences that now deliver on that expectation and a gift of Co maybe not that I would ever say Co covid was a terrible thing but there were a few things that spun out of it that were good for business and this in the relation of Tourism because everyone got shut down but Knoxville we have so many outdoor friendly activities that you can engage in that when everything opened back up and it was safe to travel again Knoxville was top of mine because we never went silent during covid we always were telling the story of why you should visit Knoxville when the time was right and what happened is our hotels were able to regroup and when we started open back up we started driving rate and you know I know people say oh I wish that was free and I wish we could do this for free but you know a lot of time visitors and think about yourself as a visitor when you travel sometimes people don't really value free they think you know where's the cat or maybe that's not the experience that I want I'd rather go do something where I had to invest this level of uh monetary value so that I receive that type of you know reward back to me when I'm done with it and that's really where Knoxville is we're driving rate the hotels are delivering on that expectation the restaurants I mean we have a phenomenal amount of restaurants and James Beard winning chefs in Knoxville Tennessee that people don't realize our attractions they're bringing it I mean we have the family friendly with navitat to the Hall of Fame to the zoo but then you also have all of these historic homes that tell the rich history that Knoxville Tennessee carries for everyone we have a Opera we have a symphony we have so many things and that's kind of like the secret you know everyone's like what is knox's one big thing well knox's one big thing we have a little bit of everything that really really engages that Leisure traveler and then you take that and you put it on top of the base we already had with conventions and sporting events well you just have a well old machine now and everyone's delivering on the experience so one of the big things we see right now is repeat visitation because if you come here for that two to four night stay you can't get it all done so you're booking a second trip because we're also a very you know uh economical value trip as well even though we're driving right and you know you can't come to Knoxville anymore for that 80 bucks a night that's not going to happen you know we're pushing 150 and on a weekday we're over 300 on the weekends but you know what you're getting a great value for your investment and that's the story we're telling and it's it's a great place to be but we've worked really hard to get here we all know that real estate is location location location our team at just homes group realy Executives has the true expertise pairing buyers and sellers with the right opportunities whether you're looking to buy or sell a home right here in Knoxville Lenor City Clinton or faragate we have the expertise throughout every Knoxville surrounding area call just homes group realy Executives today so I mean just personally I mean my family my first family is of Tennessee my family founded the state we've been here forever and ever and ever and as as I travel I travel all over the country coaching real estate and coaching scripting and all the things that I do on top of the sales just in the Knoxville Market I can't keep up with the growth I am having a hard time like oh my God I missed that ribbon cutting oh that's new we've got to go there and now I've got a running list of gotta go here gotta try that gotta I have to now know in the know and visit the KN visit Knoxville's website every week and be like oh I missed these openings this is new this is coming up how are how what is the conversation like for let's say somebody who's not from here who doesn't know what's going on what would be your biggest recommendation of a starter a starter pack this is your starter Knoxville say mom dad two kids and a dog dog is a big deal that's a whole another thing that uh came out of Co is people want to travel with their animals now and so one thing you'll be seeing a launch very soon is a dogumentary and it's going to tell this story it's going to tell the story of why you should visit noxville through a dog's point of view and it's gonna be it's G to be quite fantastic if you're a dog lover you're gonna love it and we're not just all dogs I mean we'll can we'll welcome other animals too but um it is it is a big deal and you know to kind of do that starter pack we really have something to offer in every area town but what I think does appeal to visitors a lot of times is that downtown setting and the fact that you could drive into Knoxville Tennessee you can get into your hotel room and then you literally might never touch your car again because we have so many dog friendly patios uh for your dining and all of those experiences night life still has dog friendly we have all of these dog parks throughout the entire County but you know what you can drive in get in your hotel then you can walk down to the riverfront you can rent a standup paddle board if you've left your dog I've seen some people take their dogs on the paddle boards you never know and some of them my dog not a candidate not a candidate but if you've got that well-trained dog that can jump up on the paddle board then you can paddle down to I AMS get out there you can rent a mountain bike go mountain biking come back to your paddle board come back to downtown go out to eat go out to nightlife check out a few attractions all without ever touching your car and that is a big deal to a lot of visitors but then we also have the outskirts you know you can drive into West Knoxville you can go to the farket folk life Museum there's all kinds of activities in that part of town south is growing with all Baker Creek Devil's racetrack you know North has amazing uh concept to and now with the new multi-purpose Stadium East Knoxville is booming so that's a little bit more than just your starter pack but I definitely want to hit all the areas because really it's up to the visitor what drives them what is the activity that they want and then they can build everything around that at visit knoxville.com it's uh there's just so much to do there's so few places that I have visited and we I mean we visited everywhere that has the word visit in front of visit SE visit Houston visit we do we did them visit Asheville we try to go and as a group as a family sometimes it's just Joe and I sometimes we take the kids sometimes we take the dog and kind of see what other areas have to offer on the coaching trips that I have and visit Knoxville still hands down and I am I am trying hard not to be biased when I compare it but still visit Knoxville hands down has the most diverse ability to offer all things what regardless of the trip and and I think that's something that a lot of people in the nation don't understand when they when they come here to visit to make that package deal how close we are to Dollywood and the Great Smoky Mountains and you don't even have to do those things like you said you can stay in Knoxville and do all the outdoor events of and and the affordability of everything how has that changed in the last 20 years and where is it going oh it's uh it's night and day from the last 20 years you know I mean we've had record tourism numbers you know 2019 was a great year for Knoxville Tennessee and I think 2020 was going to be awesome but then covid happened and ever since we've come out of covid I mean 21 was a great rebound from 19 but then 22 was record highs like the highest numbers in tourism in the history of Knoxville and 23 is beating 22 so you know there's no point in my the way I look at thing I don't ever really look back like we're destroying the past but our destination's grown and we have so much more to offer so I always look forward and where is that taking us and like I said the sky truly is the limit right now like we don't even know what we don't know until we know it and that is truly happening because let's think about this we have a multi-purpose stadium with uh what will now be called the noxel smokies and the one KN soccer club converging in 2025 which is going to bring all kinds of new development around that space and that's going to be exciting we have new hotels that are still popping up downtown as I speak and South Knoxville we have just scratched the surface on what the urban Wilderness is truly going to grow into it has a great base but it's not even close to done and so I think as you you you take all of that and like the excitement's just getting ahead of me but if you take all of that and you put it with the messaging and how visit Knoxville is marketing this destination and telling the story of why you should visit Knoxville it's just going to mean increased tourism numbers which when tourists come to your destination you need to celebrate that especially in a sales tax driven State like the state of Tennessee because all of those people are visiting us from all over the world they're spending their money and they're going back home so all of that money can go into you know enhancing the resources for all of us that live here and that is a big deal and that's why tourism is the number two you know industry in the state of Tennessee and Knoxville is holding its own as a county you know we are the fourth driving County in this state only behind Memphis and Nashville and severe so it's a big deal and telling the story of East Tennessee I truly believe means telling the the story of the state because the way we Market the state is the soundtrack of America made in Tennessee well that soundtrack has music Scenic Beauty and history well where do you find all three of those and the one caveat there is Scenic Beauty and obviously music was implied so you know I think that's why East Tennessee helps drive that message and as was in Knoxville in Knoxville you know I have a passion um competitive to a fault and you know I want us to be the best and there's so many more things that we'll be announcing in the coming months but you know the sun sphere truly shows you how we're collecting the data and how we're telling that story I can't believe that I mean I can believe it but I can't believe when you said that many people had visited I was like what really and I say that I say that with surprise because whenever we go downtown it's still I mean it used to be a 15minute drive but in all fairness it's a 30-minute drive it's a 30 minute drive from where we are one County over and I'm I'm like way over in one County it's a 30 minute drive I still don't feel overwhelmed I can still get into a restaurant with a 15minute wait on a Saturday night and we have we have so many people visiting that it still seems so intimate and accessible and affordable and conversational and local I still run into people that I went to college with I won't say how want 2 years ago ah 25 years ago and we still see each other at the tailgates we still see each other at Calhoun everywhere you go you see someone local that you've met previously before or new and yet we have a million people visiting basically a month and saying hey Knoxville is my place and I still feel like I can go anywhere that I need to go quickly and that is the gift I think that Knoxville brings to the table and the associations where you don't feel like you're at Disney I guess you're just packed in for an experience it's still an open experience because there's so much to have that it's spread out it's a big small town so this episode will probably air in about three months right so we we have about six that we've we've we've we've done and I'm going to say that to say this is there anything that you can tell us might be coming I can't tell all the secrets um but you know I mean we are launching a new film festival in November yeah filmfest KNX will be uh November 9th through the 12th and that will be exciting I don't know I may be talking about this a little bit after we've already done it but it is something that's going to be an annual event we're partnered with Regal Riviera downtown so it's a great way to think about why you should visit Knoxville I mean as visit Knoxville the organization you know we have the sports commission under our umbrella the film office under our umbrella we have a housing agency we have four tractor trailers with all of the premier sport court basketball and volleyball systems in the Southeast so we're very robust but the film festival Film Fest KN is the way we're going to help tell that story to producers on why you should use Knoxville as your next location uh we'll have a new and revised tour Delights in December and which will also be fun which is a lighted bike ride and that really helps continue to tell the message of how bike friendly we are we did say farewell to USA cycling in 2023 and they'll be gone for about five years but we'll hopefully have them back one day we had them for seven which was a great run but we've already announced and we're excited that we'll be hosting USA diving Olympic trials next June in Knoxville so that is I'm excited because that's an inside event in June versus running USA cycling in the heat so I'm excited for that uh repreve and you know we just have so many more things and like I said there'll be more information coming next year about the visitor center buildout at the sun sphere but there's so many reasons why you should visit Knoxville and you know just keep checking out visit knoxville.com and our event calendar is the most robust in the in the town so uh that's a great way to learn about all the new things how do you feel that Knoxville has grown and how can it grow more in retaining younger talent to stay when they graduate we have what 48 43 to 48,000 young people that graduate every year or are on campus every year you know and they usually leave and they mostly always come back they well Knoxville was the best place I'll come back how do we keep them here what are we doing to build out things to retain them as employee employees and what are we doing in the future because visit Knoxville from where we're looking on the outside in is one of the most future and Forward Thinking organizations and more younger uh people coming in with their big ideas that we Embrace and we're like that sounds great let's go so what can we do and what are we doing to embrace younger people to stay and build their Futures here I think as I can answer that as visit Knoxville you know and I think the big ways that we entice a lot of people to stay is through our internships and through showing them how to volunteer and get connected with the community I think a lot of people that leave Knoxville when they're young it's truly because they didn't know how to get the information that inspires them to stay and because we have everything that they're looking for they just don't know how to get to that information and they're misinformed sometimes because we are in the age of information overload especially for our youth so they're like oh well Atlanta has everything but it's only because they didn't look for that in Knoxville it's here it just might not be as forward facing sometimes because we do have so much going on and I do think one of the big things that we've focused on through some of our concert uh Partnerships is just enhancing that variety of who we're recruiting and what does that look like and trying to partner up and tell the story so that an artist didn't come and go from Knoxville and some people didn't know about it you know what I mean and I truly think it's just getting that information out there as far as jobs in the tourism sector there's plenty of them but whether that's what you know people coming out of college want or not you know now we have a whole hospitality and tourism major so that's exciting people are really majoring and wanting to learn how to work in a hotel or a restaurant or anything that's Hospitality driven but for me personally you know I have a lot of you know mentees so to speak and Leadership Knoxville and some other things and I just try to show them the fun people want to live where they consider it fun and whether you like it or you don't like it or you agree with it or you don't people take their own backyard for granted they take where they grew up for for granted and they take where they went to college for granted and the reason they do that is because the grass is always greener on the other side and then we see they jump over there and then they're always jumping right back they're like it it wasn't Greener over there and so I just try to go ahead and open their eyes to that and say you know what sometimes you do have to experience for yourself to understand but if you don't want to do it the hard way then just go right here and look and engage Ag and go to volunteer East Tennessee volunteer for these events and you'll see what Knoxville has to offer and you will see how awesome noxel truly is I mean that's the gift of my job I get to be reminded how awesome noxel is every single day because I look at Knoxville from the eyes of a visitor and from the eyes of the visitor Knoxville has everything that you need right here so the folks that are here right now you need to hunker down and stay because you know one day somebody's going to bounce and want to bounce back and there's nothing there for them to get into so you know if you're at UT right now there's a reason to stay there truly is where can people find information on internships and volunteer opportunities Go 100% to visit knox.com go to about us and then you'll figure out everything you need to know how to volunteer how to engage if visit Knoxville has any job openings and then I'll also give you other resour sources I also think you know checking out what the Knoxville chamber has to offer is also a good resource and then you know if you're in school and you're listening to this engage with your advisors and your teachers they know how to find us and you know I'm pretty sure all you have to do is Google my name and you can get my email and cell phone number quite easily so feel free and everybody in the nation that's listening where's the best place for them to start looking at Knoxville for vacations visit knoxville.com 100% you can even build your itinerary right there well that's exciting I'm going to fake do that and just see what it tells me to do that I haven't already done that might be the best place for me to go to definitely well that we've actually hit our time limit and we didn't even get to the fire round we'll have to do another episode and just base it on you and everything else that's going on Kim thank you for taking your time today thank you for teaching us all about visit Knoxville everybody in the nation if you have not visited Knoxville Tennessee you are missing out cuz it's the only 10 you'll see every time crack myself up with that joke Kim again I appreciate you so much thank you very much everybody thank you so much for visiting you've listened to another episode of connect the Knox I'm your host Julia Hurley and today's guest was Kim Bumpus of visit Knoxville thank you thanks appreciate it thank you for tuning in to the show make sure to like And subscribe leave a festar review on your podcast player of choice and if you would like information on moving to Knoxville send me a private message as always this is Julia Hurley connecting Knoxville to the nation
2024-04-03 05:47
