KFAL The Big 900 Classic Country
Look for heavy traffic around Mizzou’s Columbia campus today (Friday), tonight and all weekend.
The University of Missouri will be conferring 5,600 degrees at 14 commencement ceremonies, starting this afternoon at 1. Several thousand visitors are coming to town, and Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) director Amy Schneider says hotel rooms are at a premium:
“There are people at the beginning of the week that have canceled rooms. You know how it is. You have a family, you have a big block of rooms and then people kind of bow out. As soon as rooms are canceled, they seem to be getting picked back up. So I would foresee a sold-out weekend,” she says.
Columbia has approximately 3,300 hotels rooms, and Ms. Schneider says about 15 percent of them are available for this weekend. She expects them to sell out quickly. Graduation weekend at Mizzou also means cash registers will be ringing at restaurants and shops. CVB director Schneider tells 939 the Eagle that it’s great for Columbia:
“As these people are coming in, they’re spending their money at our hotels, our restaurants, buying gas, going shopping. That is new money that’s coming into the community. And that is new money, new tax dollars that will support all of the things that we love and enjoy about the community that we live in,” says Schneider.
She’s referring to sales tax money that will be generated.
