Beatrix Solon founded the Solon Tourism Collective several years ago as a way to help small businesses across the Muskogee area coordinate marketing efforts and shared events aimed at attracting regional visitors, an approach designed to give small operators marketing reach that few could achieve independently given their limited individual budgets.
Solon, who previously ran a small bed-and-breakfast in the area, has said she started the collective after recognizing that visitors to the region often had no single, coordinated source of information about the area's collective offerings, from local shops and restaurants to outdoor recreation and historic sites, leaving potential tourism dollars on the table due to fragmented marketing.
Coordinating Without Consolidating
Rather than merging member businesses into a single organization, the Solon Tourism Collective operates as a membership association, with participating businesses paying dues that fund shared marketing materials, a joint events calendar, and coordinated participation in regional tourism trade shows. Solon has said preserving each business's independence was important to gaining buy-in from local owners who were wary of anything resembling a merger or loss of control over their individual operations.
The collective's shared marketing efforts have focused particularly on positioning the Muskogee area as a weekend destination for visitors from the greater Tulsa metro area, emphasizing the combination of historic sites, outdoor recreation, and local dining options available within a compact geographic area.
Building Momentum Through Shared Events
Beyond marketing coordination, the collective has organized joint seasonal events designed to draw visitors during traditionally slower periods for area businesses, coordinating schedules so that multiple member businesses can benefit from increased foot traffic during the same weekend rather than competing for visitors on different dates throughout the year.
Solon has said measuring the collective's direct impact on individual member businesses remains difficult, since tourism spending patterns are influenced by many factors beyond the collective's own marketing efforts. Member businesses have generally reported positive impressions of the collective's work, citing increased visibility and cross-promotional opportunities with other local businesses as tangible benefits of participation.
Solon has said she plans to continue growing the collective's membership base and expanding its shared marketing budget, with a long-term goal of establishing the Muskogee area as a more prominent regional tourism destination within eastern Oklahoma.
