Last week, Ole Seagull wrote a news article entitled “ExploreBranson’s Show Schedule Useless for Spring Break?” Some took umbrage with the article. That’s too bad; one only hopes they’ll get over it.
Some might say, “That’s harsh,” but it’s true! Their reaction is reminiscent of the epic line from the movie “A Few Good Men,” “You can’t handle the truth!”
What’s the truth in this case? Well, it’s really “truths” because more than one truth is involved, but three are of major significance. In researching the article, the Ole Seagull wanted to know if “Presley’s Country Jubilee,” “The Haygoods,” and “Legends in Concert” shows would be available during the March 7-13 period of the 2025 Spring Break. As many would do, especially those seeing one of the many ExploreBranson ads on TV, he went to the ExploreBranson website.
One of the first things he saw on the page was an option for “Live Shows,” which he selected. That took him to a page with the headline, “Your Vacation Needs a World-Class Live Music Show.” By scrolling down to the bottom of the page, for the first time, he came to a calendar where he could select the dates he was interested in.
The Ole Seagull clicked on March 7 as the arrival date and March 13 as the departure date. The result was eight shows. Of the three shows he was interested in, only “The Haygoods” were in the results. Noticing a “Search Box,” one at a time, he put the names of the other two, “Presley’s Country Jubilee” and “Legends in Concert,” in the Search Box. The result for each says, “Try a broader search. No results match your search criteria.”
Believing that was incorrect, he took the date filter off the search to show all the shows in the database as of 8 a.m. on January 8, 2025. There were 16, none of which were “Presley’s Country Jubilee” or “Legends in Concert.” He then went to the Show Page of a non-taxpayer-funded commercial site, “Branson.com,” and entered the dates March 7-13, 2025. The search returned a list containing all three of the shows he was interested in, plus many more.
Based on an Ole Seagull’s experience, he believes that most people using the internet for planning vacations typically plan three to six months in advance. The first truth, based on that experience and the information above, is that as of January 8, 2025, Explore Branson, a site that has hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars spent on it to attract traffic, only had 16 Branson shows listed on its site for those coming to the site to consider. This was the case, while the commercial sites had many more.
The second truth is that ExploreBranson.com’s show schedule does not contain a complete list during one of the critical planning periods of the year, and this is the fault of the shows themselves, NOT ExploreBranson.Com/CVB. If the shows gave the correct information to the commercial and reseller sites, they could have given it to ExploreBranson.com.
The third truth is that the Ole Seagull believes that the current leadership of the CVB, led by Pam Yancy and Heather Hermen, supports the “faith, flag, family and fun” philosophy of the Branson Board of Aldermen. He believes they genuinely want a collaborative and transparent relationship with the city to use taxpayer marketing dollars in the most efficient way to promote Branson and build a plan, strategy and tactics that will have the best economic impact on it, its businesses and residents.
What’s ironic to an Ole Seagull is that while not furnishing the correct information to ExploreBranson.com, many submitted the proper information to the commercial and reseller sites. ExploreBranson.com/CVB cannot say, “We had a dream,” and put up Show Schedules that the shows have not correctly submitted.
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