Barbecue-lovers overwhelmingly prefer that Excelsior Springs hold its annual BBQ & Flyin on the River event downtown, rather than at Excelsior Springs Memorial Airport, based on data Lyndsey Baxter presented Oct. 17 to city leaders. Baxter, Downtown Excelsior Partnership (DEP) executive director, presented stats from this year’s festival during the City Council meeting at the Hall of Waters as part of her third-quarter report of downtown visitor traffic. Like her reports of other fiscal quarters, the data came from Placer Labs LLC, using artificial intelligence software. The number of total visitors spiked 301% from 2021, when the barbecue festival took place at the airport, Baxter reported. That also was up 13.86% from 2019, when it was downtown, she said. In addition, Baxter reported the number of times people were downtown during the September event, or total visits, to be 6,891. That was a 175% jump from 2021 and up 17.89% from 2019, she said. BBQ &…