ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Summertime is typically a time of year when people like to get away from home for a while with a vacation trip to somewhere, but with many family incomes limited due to inflation and other issues, many are opting to stay home for the summer.
For those making this choice in Liberal and the surrounding area, there are more than a few fun things to do locally, and no matter what they choose to do, eating is a constant need.
Liberal has some great local restaurants, and the Seward County Development Corporation is helping highlight some of the town’s eateries with the recent launch of its Staycation Guide – Shop Local First, Summer Edition.
SCDC Entrepreneurship Director Raquel Arellano said the idea came from her participation in the Leadership Kansas program.
“We went around and saw things that were happening in Western Kansas,” she said. “We got to visit Garden City and Dodge City. We also have been to Wichita and got to see the things that are happening there as far as economic development is concerned.”
As she talked to others in the program, Arellano said she had heard many people were planning to stay home this summer.
“A lot of people tightened their belt and said we need to stay in this year because of the economy or for whatever reason,” she said. “In conversation with someone, I thought what I should do is I should create a staycation guide if in fact people are going to stay in town.”
Naturally, when cuts are made to families’ budgets, eating out is the first thing to go for many.
“That’s the first thing on everybody’s list, and I thought the way we could continue with this theme of shopping local first is to push some more advertising towards our restaurants,” Arellano said. “What better way to do it than to make a staycation guide with beautifully illustrated photos and highlighting their main signature dishes. I opened it up to the public on our social media page.”
The Staycation Guide only has information about nine or 10 of Liberal’s local restaurants, as Arellano said this is what was believed to be financially feasible for most families to afford without having to eat out often.
“They could financially decide if they’re going to go to this one restaurant because it has an added benefit to it,” she said.
Arellano said several restaurants requested to be in the guide, and SCDC officials looked to pick out the eateries that stood out the most amongst the group for the guide.
“We found seven businesses and two food trucks we put on our staycation guide,” she said. “We didn’t want to recreate the wheel, and we certainly didn’t want to compete with any of the other entities that are doing these types of guides or visit locations as part of their promotion.”
Being in the guide is absolutely free of charge, and Arellano said a professional photographer took stylized pictures of each restaurants signature dishes.
“We put up in a full-color flyer of their signature dish and gave their hours of operation,” she said.
The digital guide encourages residents to explore and support local businesses, and participants can also pick up a Staycation Passport at the SCDC office in the Landmark Center.
As each location is visited, participants will collect signatures, and completed passports submitted by Sept. 2 will be entered into a drawing for one of three giveaway packages worth $200.
“You don’t have to necessarily eat there, but you do have to purchase something there,” Arellano said. “Maybe you just go to that place for a drink or a snack, and you have them sign your passport.”
Arellano said the prizes will be $200 meal vouchers to several local restaurants.
“It’s exciting with an added benefit, and the purpose is to continue to elevate what’s in our own backyard and to share our local eateries and lean into the culture we have here,” she said.
Arellano said few eateries signed up for the guide, and nearly all who did are featured in the guide. She added the current edition is just the beginning for what Liberal has to offer in terms of food.
“We want to continually do these over the course of the year and feature different restaurants in Liberal,” she said. “We’ll open it up to another staycation guide in another season, and we’ll go from there.”
Arellano said the Staycation Guide is similar to the Pink Friday campaign SCDC did last November in that it also has a shop local first driven purpose.
With many families choosing to stay closer to home, Arellano said SCDC wanted to remind everyone of all the great things Liberal has to offer, and she added the campaign is about community pride, fun and supporting the businesses that make the town unique.
With the guide primarily being pushed through social media and many area residents coming to Liberal on a regular basis, Arellano said people from surrounding communities can also participate in the Staycation Guide campaign.
“We definitely want to entice other people from the surrounding area to come and try out what we have in Liberal,” she said. “Not only is it for you to shop local first, but it’s also for people around the area who are coming to soccer tournaments, family reunions, birthday parties, weddings, what have you. They can also download our staycation guide. They can request a passport, and we can definitely get it to them.”
For those who come to Liberal on weekends when the SCDC office is not open, Arellano said downloadable passports are also available to take to local restaurants for signing.
“We definitely want them to participate as well,” she said.
Arellano said the Staycation Guide features a great variety of culinary delights.
“We have some that are breakfast places,” she said. “We have a brunch place. We have hamburgers. We have all kinds of stuff in the guide.”
The guide is available on the Seward County Development Corporation Facebook page and on SCDC’s Web site at www.swks.org.
“You can go and download it there,” Arellano said. “It’s an online digital magazine. You don’t have to download it and print it. You can definitely enjoy all the beautiful colors digitally. It’s an issue magazine that’s going to be online.”
As part of the effort of not recreating the wheel, Arellano said other local businesses were not featured in the Staycation Guide.
“Visit Liberal has an amazing updated site, and they have a calendar on there that shows everything that’s taking place in Liberal,” she said. “My hope was not to take and redo everything they’re doing, but we could showcase just restaurants.”
Arellano said last year’s Pink Friday campaign was more aimed at boutiques and other local businesses, as she wanted to let people know what Liberal has to offer in terms of extracurricular activities. She added with those available on the Visit Liberal and City of Liberal Web site, SCDC wanted to focus the Staycation Guide on showcasing restaurants.
Arellano said it is very important to champion local entrepreneurs and give them as much advertising and exposure as possible, and this also fosters organic growth while giving people something else to talk about in the community.
“You would be surprised how many people I’ve talked to and I ask them ‘Have you been to such and such restaurant? It recently opened within the last six months,’” she said. “They’re like, ‘I haven’t been there. I haven’t gotten there. I haven’t tried it.’ This maybe will entice them to get there.”
A guide such as the Staycation Guide is effective, Arellano said, because organic growth and the things SCDC can do to elevate what people see about Liberal are helpful for not only restaurants, but also museums and other activities the community has to offer.
“It’s going to be effective because the more marketing and information we put out there, the more visibility we have with the surrounding communities and our community as well,” she said.
Arellano is excited to see what happens with the current edition of the Staycation Guide.
“I love small businesses, and I think our restauranteurs put so much into building a good product and making delicious food for us,” she said. “The very least we can do is to showcase their art.”
