CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Dozens of residents gathered for Visit Corpus Christi's town hall.
Nothing was off-limits -- as several residents wanted beach nourishment and sand migration to be fixed. Others felt like the city doesn't market itself enough to those outside of Texas.
President and CEO of Visit Corpus Christi, Brett Oetting told 3NEWS that their are two metrics they look for when determining strategy: How much does the average visitor spend while they're in town, and how long do they stay here in Corpus Christi?
Oetting said that it all begins with expanding reach.
"Telling more people, including out-of-state and even farther than the border states, because every time we tell people what Corpus Christi has to offer, it is enough for them to want to be here," he said.
Keeping visitors in Corpus Christi longer also requires strategy.
"Trying to get people to go from two days to three days, or three days to four days and try to ensure that when they come here, they don't just sit on the beach and enjoy the beach, but they get off and go to our great attractions," he said.
Coastal Bend residents like Victoria Roger have enjoyed seeing the growth of the city. She's lived on Padre Island for 20 years.
“We need some way for people to get out and move around here because parking is limited and we need to bring people in,” he said.
MMGY NextFactor President Paul Ouimet will collect surveys from the event and return in May to present the largest issues the community feels hinders more people from travelling here.
"It's one thing to complain, but to come here with positive recommendations on what could be done, that's really, that's when it's a productive, constructive dialogue," he said. "I've heard a lot of that today, so I'm really excited to go through the notes."
Oetting believes there's room for improvement, but it will take a group effort to bring change.
“We can work together to fix the solutions, but we have to have the community," he said. "We have to have our partners we have to have our elected officials all going the same direction."
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