It’s been a great year for tourism

We’ve been talking to dozens of people directly connected to the Black Hills tourism industry the past couple of weeks and we can relay to you that it has been a very good year so far for the industry. Reports range from “a lot better than last year” to “great.” That’s good news for all of our Black Hills communities because we depend so heavily on seasonal visitors for our economic success. Every year we begin by wondering how it will be this year, but every year our visitors continue to come to enjoy our beautiful scenery and natural attractions.

We love to hear encouraging news like that from nearby Wind Cave National Park which reported its highest visitor numbers in July since 1977. Area motels and restaurants report that they have had a very busy year, as have our area attractions. The Sioux Falls Argus Leader last week reported that the South Dakota Office of Tourism has been hearing “good feelings” about numbers around the state. Director Melissa Miller attributed the increase in business to creative marketing and the fact that the state offers affordable vacations. No where is this more true than in the Black Hills.

The Argus Leader quoted Wall Drug president Ted Hustead saying the state’s tourism industry is “recession proof.” That’s quite a statement, but it certainly has proven to be true. Whenever we think our Black Hills tourism industry will be impacted by a poor national economy and a high jobless rate in the country, we have another great year, like we are having this year. Hustead said Wall Drug had a 7 percent increase in visitors in July. He said he was “shocked” by such a great increase in July, adding that he could never remember such an increase in July numbers at the world-famous drug store.

Miller said the number of people inquiring about visiting South Dakota from February to July was up 11.2 percent this year over the same period in 2009. States with the most inquiries were Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa. In the Black Hills, we saw a  a lot more than just these state license plates. We saw plates from all over the country. It wasn’t just regional traffic that we were experiencing. Visitors were coming from near and far.

Locally, we have made great strides with the implementation of a Business Improvement District (BID) two years ago in June 2008. The $2 per room tax on motel rooms provided $148,158 in 2009 to market and promote the Custer County area, primarily on a newly developed website, visitcuster.com, and with advertising in the front range of Colorado. BID board president Joe Jackl said the express purpose of the BID is “to put heads in beds,” which, in turn, benefits everybody else in the community.

Cooperative efforts between the chambers of commerce in the Southern Black Hills has led to the successful development of a full-color tourism promotion magazine, the Southern Black Hills Vacation Guide, which highlights things to see and do from Edgemont to Hot Springs to Custer to Hill City and Keystone. Next year, Hermosa wants to be included in the mix. Produced by Southern Hills Publishing, Inc., the magazine has grown in numbers from 50,000 its first year to 80,000 in 2011. The magazine is distributed to interstate rest areas, eastern Wyoming and the panhandle of Nebraska. It is available locally at the chambers, motels and campgrounds. It is also mailed to anyone inquiring about visiting the Southern Hills.

Joint efforts from state to local levels has made it possible to get the word out to potential visitors that the Southern Black Hills is the place to be. It is affordable, scenic, exciting and educational. What more could anyone ask for in a vacation? Cooperative efforts to bring more people to the Southern Hills are paying off big time. Besides more “heads on beds,” we are seeing more “smiles on faces” of area business owners.