A project by the Ames Convention and Visitors Bureau aims to give visitors to the city a new way to more easily enjoy their stay.

The Ames Access Card, a card intended to connect large groups that come to Ames with businesses in the city, recently was introduced to the community.

“The card is designed to help visitors to the community aggressively get out and explore the Ames community,” said Rich Harter, executive director of the ACVB. “We decided we needed something that would be easy for the consumer to use and easy for Ames area businesspersons to track sales.”

The Ames Access Card is the size of a credit card and is meant to assist visitors and businesses in avoiding the hassle of dealing with coupons.

“We want to protect our member businesses from being misused or abused by coupons,” Harter said. “The card will help make it easy for businesses.”

The cards are given to groups of visitors to use throughout their stay in Ames. They expire on the date the conference or convention ends.

Harter said 21 businesses are offering visiting groups discounts or specials through the card.

“That is about 10 percent of our membership,” he said. “The use of the cards will be ongoing and seasonal. We hope to have 50 businesses by next year.”

Last year, the ACVB commissioned research that suggested visitors to Ames wanted a way to access businesses in the community more easily.

Harter said he isn’t guaranteeing that the card will be successful, but he added that he hopes the service will take off after the card becomes established in Ames.

“Businesses are always cautious of new promotions, so most of the members are looking to see how well the card does before participating,” he said. “We will know in six months from now if the card is a success.”

Of the businesses accepting the access card, few have had visitors use the card since it was made effective in early May.

“No one has used the card yet,” said Greg White, manager of O’Malley & McGees Mexican Cafe, 716 South Duff. “We have been taking the card for less than a month now.”

Research from the ACVB found that overnight visitors to Ames brought in $31 million dollars to the city and $82 million dollars to Story County last year. According to the research, the tourism industry in Story County employs over 1,000 people and serves over 1 million visitors annually.

“We think [the Ames Access Card] is a wonderful way to get visitors out into the community,” Harter said. “We are excited to have the new program. Oh, did I mention that it is free?”