Visit Fairfield returns to printing local restaurant guide

FAIRFIELD — Visit Fairfield Executive Director Terry Baker said the tourism industry has rebounded since the pandemic, and that she’s got several programs in store to bring more people to town.

“We’ve reached the place where visits are comparable to what they were in 2019,” Baker said. “We know there is still some caution on the part of travelers for different reasons, but now it seems to be more about gas prices than about health and safety.”

Baker said that Fairfield is the perfect road trip for people who are seeking a more rural area but with some amenities so they “don’t feel like they’re roughing it all the time.”

As a way of educating outsiders about Fairfield’s entertainment and amenities, Baker’s tourism office has invited “influencers” to town, people who have a large following on social media. These people write or record videos about Fairfield and share it with their followers.

“It helps create a lot of awareness about us,” Baker said.

The visitor’s bureau’s promotional guide, known as the Fairfield Vibe Guide, was honored earlier this year by the Iowa Tourism Office with the award for Outstanding Promotional Material. The Vibe Guide was unveiled last fall to tourism partners and city leaders, and was a larger format that previous guides, with stories highlighting Fairfield’s art scene, Carnegie Historical Museum, quaint shops, local food scene, and other hidden gems.

Baker said the Vibe Guide is her office’s “flagship piece of collateral” and she tries to have it as many places around town as possible.

“We also have many thousands of copies of it distributed along I-80 and at the Iowa Visitor Center,” she said. “It’s a great entry point for people who want to learn about Fairfield.”

Baker said she updated the guide so that it read more like a travel magazine and not just a list of businesses in Fairfield.

“People need to taste the flavor of Fairfield, and the guide helps them do that,” she said.

Apart from Visit Fairfield’s Vibe Guide, the tourism office has produced a slew of other promotional materials in the past year that accent a different feature of the town. For instance, it printed a holiday events booklet last year that provided information about holiday concerts, shows at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, Christmas at the Barns, and other activities during the holiday season.

Visit Fairfield also revived its printed Fairfield Restaurant Guide this year. Baker said her office had printed a restaurant guide for many years, but decided to stop printing them a few years ago.

“It was always a big challenge because as soon as we print it, it’s out of date,” she said. “Either a restaurant has changed its address or phone number, or it’s gone out of business. We resorted to our QR code, to direct people to our website for updated information.”

However, after speaking with local businesses and restaurants, Baker felt it was time to give the printed restaurant guide another try. She collected a list of the restaurants that maintain stable hours, and came up with a list of 27 establishments that included their address, business hours, and whether they served food, coffee or alcohol.

“I did a small print run to see how it would gone, and the brochures were gone in two days,” she said. “We’ve already had to reprint them. We now have a large quantity at them at the convention center. I took a number of them to AmericInn, and they called me right away, saying they want them in every room.”

Baker said she’s in the process of placing the restaurant guides in surrounding towns, so would-be visitors know where they can eat in Fairfield.

“One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say there’s no place to eat in Fairfield,” she said. “I say, ‘you haven’t looked.’ I take these restaurant guides to people downtown, and it’s amazing how many locals say they didn’t realize we had all these restaurants in Fairfield.”

Baker said that Fairfield is building a reputation as a Southeast Iowa “foodie hub.” This image was reinforced thanks to a recent visit from the Iowa City-based blogger Jay Goodvin, who goes by the name “The Iowa Gallivant.” Goodvin wrote about his visit to Fairfield along with his stops at many of the town’s eateries and attractions on Oct. 1.

“It’s fun to see people from out of town recognize what Fairfield has to offer,” Baker said. “When we live here, we get blind to what we have, so it’s important to start honoring the fact that we have a fun selection of restaurants.”

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com