Two of Iowa’s largest retail food chains are partnering for a new program to save customers money on gasoline. Des Moines-based Hy-Vee grocery stores and the Ankeny-based Casey’s General Store convenience stores are launching the promotion. Hy-Vee spokeswoman Ruth Comer says customers can sign up for free. “When they purchase items that are featured in the weekly Fuel Saver ad, savings discounts are added to their fuel saver card,” Comer says. “They can then swipe that card at the gas pump at any Hy-Vee or Casey’s store and save money. The more of the items they purchase, the more they’ll save on each gallon of gasoline.”

She says the discounts on the items range from two cents to 25-cents, but they’ll add up. “A typical savings each week, if a customer buys one of everything that’s featured in the ad, would be $2 a gallon,” Comer says. “If they buy multiple items, they can save even more, up to getting their gas for free.”

It replaces a gas saving program at Hy-Vee where customers used to have to keep track of receipts and bring them into the gas station/store for the discount to apply. Hy-Vee has 234 stores in eight Midwestern states, including 106 gas stations. Casey’s has 17-hundred stores in 12 Midwestern states.

(Radio Iowa)

The Council Bluffs Convention and Visitors Bureau has been awarded $1000 from the Western Iowa Tourism Region (WITR) to help provide funding for magazine advertising to attract Group Travel and to promote Culinary Tour itineraries. “Rise to the Occasion” is a new group travel itinerary created by Diane Hestness, Group Travel Director for the Council Bluffs CVB.  The itinerary is all about having a hand-on experience with foods.  Hestness says “Culinary tours are very popular right now. To secure new motor coach business, we created this tour that’s centered around culinary experiences in Council Bluffs and Pottawattamie County.”

In order to get a little help in publicizing this new itinerary, the CVB sought and was awarded a Western Iowa Tourism Grant.  WITR Regional Director, Michelle Walker, reports that western Iowa continues to see an increase in private and public investment in tourism related projects and services. And, WITR and the Travel Federation of Iowa continue to communicate about the economic significance of tourism by sharing the revenues received by local and state taxes and the number of travel related jobs.