Our Mission: The Stevens Point Area Convention & Visitors Bureau leads the region’s tourism industry and aggressively markets the area as an attractive destination for leisure and business travel in order to create a positive economic impact and, thus, enhance the area’s quality of life.

Our Role In Tourism: The Stevens Point Are Convention And Visitors Bureau (SPACVB) is the destination marketing organization for Portage County whose purpose is to expand the county’s economy by attracting conventions, sporting events and leisure travelers. This non-profit organization is governed by 23 board of directors representing both the public and private sectors in the community. The SPACVB is funded primarily by room tax and also receives a subsidy from the county to cover promotion of non-room tax generating communities. The Convention and Visitors Bureau targets four primary markets (or travelers) when promoting the area. Those markets include leisure, meeting and conventions, sports and motorcoach/groups.

Our Markets:
Meeting & Convention Market: It’s no secret Portage County is one of the best locations for groups to gather for meetings, conferences, conventions and family reunions. Our central location in the state is like no other and our new and revitalized meeting/ convention facilities and our excellent park systems put us on top of the competition. Our dedicated staff aggressively sells the area to Midwest based event planners. Another dimension of what we do is to provide group services to event planners that are thinking about bringing business to the area. Those services include sharing facility information and available dates, hosting facility tours, conducting formal presentations/bids inviting groups to the area, housing assistance, public relations assistance, printing name badges, organizing special group activities (receptions/tours) and securing dignitaries to welcome their group to the community. The SPACVB maintains the official convention facility information website for the county, www.conventioncentral.org.

Sports Market: The SPACVB recognizes the importance Sports Tourism has within the county. We are home to some of the best fields, gyms and rinks in Wisconsin, coupled with our excellent location we make it a natural fit to host state and regional competition. The SPACVB in conjunction with the Central Wisconsin/Stevens Point Area Sports Commission assist in enhancing existing events and bringing new events to the area. Like Convention Tourism the SPACVB provides local youth and amateur sports organizations with an array of services such as welcome packets (including a visitor guide and coupons to area businesses), housing assistance/room blocks, opportunity to apply for grants and production of map/registration brochure to name a few. The SPACVB maintains the official sports website for Portage County, www.stevenspointarea.com/sports.

Motor Coach/Group Market: The SPACVB recognizes the importance of Group Tourism within our community. In collaboration with the Central Wisconsin Tourism Association (CWTA), the Stevens Point Area, Marshfield, and Wisconsin Rapids Convention & Visitors Bureau’s cooperatively promote the Central Wisconsin Region to group tour and motorcoach planners. CWTA represents all of Portage and Wood Counties and can assist tour planners with a number of services, including, but not limited to the following: arranging step on guides, coordinating welcome receptions and trip planning assistance. CWTA also produces a motorcoach tour planning guide. The SPACVB maintains the official group tour website for CWTA, www.centralwisconsin.org.

Leisure: The SPACVB promotes Portage County as a desirable destination for families, couples and friends to enjoy. Our organization promotes the area’s attractions, points of interest, history, special events and other unique amenities in an attempt to draw visitors from throughout the Midwest to Portage County. When promoting the area for travel during the spring, summer and fall seasons we emphasize the abundance of green space and waterways we have available for the outdoor recreationalists to enjoy whether they like to bike, hike, canoe, kayak, boat, fish, bird watch, golf or just relax. However, the county offers an abundance of indoor activities to excite, enthuse, pamper and entertain no matter what the weather such as unique shopping, great art galleries and wonderful museums. The SPACVB serves as a visitor resource before travelers arrive as well as during their stay. Our Visitor Information Center staff assists with answers to local lodging, dining, shopping and entertainment questions and provides visitors with brochures, maps and travel guides for the area. The SPACVB maintains the official visitor information website for the county, www.stevenspointarea.com.