Local group studies national tourism models

Local Southern Iowa tourism advocates in the Historic Hills region, representing Appanoose, Davis, Decatur, Clarke, Lucas, Monroe, Wayne, Wapello, Van Buren, and the city of Donnellson, are looking at national marketing models in order to get ready for increases in the number of visitors expected when the Honey Creek Resort State Park on Rathbun Lake opens next summer.

Recently, tourism advocates from the Historic Hills region and Chariton Valley Planning and Development responded to an invitation from the State of Colorado to learn more about that state’s outreach efforts.

“Governor Bill Ritter was most gracious in inviting southern Iowans involved with tourism to the annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism on October 11th in Grand Junction,” relays Tracy Daugherty Miller, executive director of Chariton Valley Planning and Development. “The opportunity gave my staff time to talk with Colorado’s Commissioner of Agriculture, John Stulp, about agri-tourism while also learning from Colorado’s state officials and businesses about practical marketing strategies that may be applied in Iowa.”

Daugherty Miller notes that Historic Hills works closely with the Iowa Tourism Office and with the Central Iowa Tourism Region so as to network with Iowa attractions, chambers of commerce, and other promoters of the visitor economy.

“While Historic Hills is very involved with Iowa’s own tourism programs,” explains Daugherty Miller, “studying how destination tourism states focus their resources and marketing may give our area a better understanding as to how to target our limited budgets.”

The weeklong tourism conference was aimed at teaching Colorado tourism advocates and businesses about how to encourage residents to spend their next vacation exploring the many wonders of Colorado instead of traveling out-of-state or even abroad. Chariton Valley Planning and Development and Historic Hills members were invited to attend the conference because of the counties’ success in working cooperatively on regional marketing and because of the contacts that southern Iowans have made with the Colorado Department of Tourism.

Tourism is one of the largest industries in Colorado, with a tremendous economic impact according to Governor Ritter. Figures from 2006 show that $8.9 billion was generated from tourism and 15 percent of that was from Colorado residents. Governor Ritter’s conference took an in depth look at Colorado’s return visitors, what those consumers are coming back to see, and how to develop attractions further so as to stimulate repeat visits.

“While at first glance people tend to think of Colorado in terms of mountains and ski resorts, further review shows that two-thirds of the state fits a profile more like Iowa’s with open grass and range lands,” says Nichole Moore, a Historic Hills member. “Colorado businesses and communities are great at building excitement through storytelling about historic accounts and Historic Hills wants to better tell southern Iowa’s stories to visitors so that we can build our appeal.”

Although Iowa has not always sought to be a forerunner in the tourism industry, things are changing. Now more than ever people are looking to travel in Iowa. Many of the current visitors are actually within the state or from close by neighboring states.

Daugherty Miller elaborates, “In developing tourism, the Historic Hills needs to establish itself in the Midwest tourism market. Being located within the middle of that Midwestern market gives Historic Hills the advantage of shorter travel distance and lower costs for travelers. As the fuel prices continue to rise, so will the number of opportunities that we have to make a sale to Midwestern residents and repeat travelers.”

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