Judul : Lincoln Prairie Behavioral Health Center
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Lincoln Prairie Behavioral Health Center
>>> hello and welcometo "prairie pulse." joining me today is sara otte coleman,the north dakota tourism director. sara, thanks so muchfor joining us. >> yeah, yeah. >> before we get to business,tell the folks a little bit
Lincoln Prairie Behavioral Health Center, about yourself, your backgroundand where you're originally from. >> independent originallyfrom north dakota. i grew up in bismarck. i'm back at home.
i've been a state director fora little over ten years now. prior to that, i was in tourismmarketing with the bismarck mandate conventionand visitors bureau. i've been a cheerleader forthe state for a long time. it's a fun job. always something interesting andnow is a really exciting time to be telling the northdakota story. >> i guess then, how did youget -- you've been in tourism for awhile, where it's bismarckmenden and now north dakota.
what got you interested in that>> you know, i started out, came home from college,married a rancher. we knew we were coming home andstarted out in a couple of different areas, a coupleof different jobs. i did some telecommunications stuff,communication and some writing. there was a sales positionopened at the cvb. it intrigued me. i wanted to travel and i thoughtit would be a great way to excel the community i love.
thought it would be a great wayto travel and it went from there. >> let's talk a little bit about2012, update the folks on tourism. how was the last summerand leading into winter? >> we had a reallygood year last year. 2012 was about up on theboards across all the matrix. it was up 12, 13%. canadian borders were up. we saw an 18% increasein people that deplaned. we have more planes now and moreflighting coming in and that
will continue to grow in 2013. really every metric was up, except for ouroccupancy rate which dipped slightly. that we expected because we had somany more hotels that came on-line. overall, a really good year. all of our traction -- most of ourtractions saw major increases as well. >> what about theupcoming summer? i assume you'reexpecting big things. will we continue to see growth? will it level off?
what are you expecting? >> we're optimistic. we're very optimistic. we have new products coming onboard, you know, all the time. a lot of new attractions andexpansions that are opening up. we're expecting, you know, hotelavailability throughout the state. so we're really going to get theword out that there's new things and do, but also all the oldfavorites are available. >> in terms of numbers, how many peoplecome through and visit north dakota?
>> our members have beencontinuing to grow. we measure it a numberof different ways. we don't have a way of counting everyperson that comes over the border. most of our studies relyon visitor spending. we saw really good solidincreases in visitor spending in all of our studies that we do. for example, if you look at likeour major attractions, those had 4.6 million visitors justat our major attractions. that kind of gives you an idea.
tr national park is our largest attractionand that had over 600,000 visitors. good numbers. >> i understand your department wonseveral recent advertising awards. can you tell us about those? >> yeah, we did. our tv campaign wonthe national awards. we won 11 of the local awards. a couple of golds, therest were silver. we're proud of the work of our staff andthe agency put together a nice creative
campaign. it's fun when you win awards. but what's more fun is thereturn on investment research that we got that proved that those ads do, youknow, the visitors and attract the visitors. we like the awards, but moreimportantly, we like to know for every dollar we spent on paidmarketing last year, we got $119 back in visitor spending:that's the real award. >> that's a pretty goodreturn on investment. wished we could all do that.
what about the brand and you've had for anumber of years and continues to do well. >> last year was the anniversaryof the legendary brand. we went out to partners and stakeholdersand how do you deliver on legendary. as a state, we create the brandand we've got the brand promise, but we can't necessarilydeliver on it. it was really important forus to reengage with partners. we did that all last year. i think that wentover really well. the nice thing about it is itwas built on those traditional
stories, lewis and clark andsakakaweaa and roosevelt park. it's all leaning towardsthe current stories. you have can have legendarygolfing and hunting. it's a versatile brand that alot of our partners can see delivering, which is themost important part. >> one of the areas booming ishotel construction in the state can you talk about why this ishappening and where it's happening? >> yeah. we're one of the top constructionmarkets in the last couple of years.
we've seen over 40 hotels open since2011, almost 3500 sleeping rooms. they're statewide. a lot of them are west, but there are 11of them in communities on the east side of highway 83. so they're scattered throughout ithink the really exciting part of it is, a lot of themare in rural communities. you know, obviously we're seeingtremendous growth in bismarck, minot and willissonand dickinson. a lot of these areas haven'tseen hotels in years.
it's fun to drive into stanley andsee two or three brand new hotels. it's exciting. >> of course how much hasthat impacted tourism? >> you know, it has impacted tour rim ithink in a number of different ways. it's obviously created theawareness for the state. as people become aware of thestate, then they're calling and then they're coming to visit. you know, when you hear some isolatedstories of people that just come. for the most part, peoplevisit before they move.
the fact that there's more jobsthat have driven people to the state to visit to see if this isa place they want to move to. it's impacted on some of thegrowth on the business travel, it spurred some of that growthwith the hotel markets. our recent research showed that ourvisa travel actually led the growth. we had a 15% growth in leash lee travel in 2011and 6% in business growth overnight travel. so it still is leisuretravelers leading the way. i guess the good news is some ofthis development is being funded and fueled by some ofthe energy development.
it will serve the leisure travelersfor a lot of years to come. >> is there some concern thatoil exploration is starting to infringe on the badlands and siteslike this from your perspective? >> there are someconcerns with that. i know, you know, we reallywant to balance that. i think that's everybody's goalyou want to balance development but you want to keep our most pristineand scenic places pristine and scenic. one of the things we did thispast year is national parks has a publication as wellas a website and blog.
we brought their editor out. he spent several days in thebadlands and in t.r. national park and ended up getting about17 stories they placed as a result of those four to fivedays he spent in north dakota. most every one ofthem was positive. i think there were a couple that,you know, they're honest as well. there is more noise,the sky isn't as dark. there are things thathave changed out there. overall, i think his perspectivewas that it wasn't nearly what
he had expected and that itstill was very pristine and the traffic was nothing compared to, youknow, most of the national parks. so i think putting it intoperspective and just really trying to make sure we balancethe needs of all of our industries across the state will get us ina good spot if we can consider all those. >> sara, where do people journeyfrom to come to north dakota? and how do you track it? >> we track it a numberof different ways. we do research every otheryear that can give us insight.
every year we look at our metrics that we can manage.for example, who requested the visitor informationto be sent out. for that metric, minnesota was number onefollowed by illinois, wisconsin and ohio. so those were, you know,kind of not surprising. we spend a lot of our marketingdollars in minnesota and wisconsin. not so much in illinois becausewe just can't afford it. the chicago market iskind of expensive. some of our market does gointo the central region. that was kind of interesting.
we didn't see california, texaswhich are usually in the top five because of thesheer population base. but, you know, we look at alot of different studies. there's not one perfect study. we're just constantly looking atall the metrics that we can and try to make good marketing decisionsbased on the information that we have. >> you know, has the positive economic newsout of north dakota, you know, sort of allowed the recent survey sayingit's one of the best states for young people to have differentthings, have they boost -- has
there been a boost to thenumbers and to tourism and sort of related to northdakota's image? it's almost silly toask the question. it has to, doesn't it? >> yeah, it does. especially a couple of years ago, you sawreally positive stories coming out about north dakota. you know, you get a few of the negativeones that come with the positive. you kind of have to balancethose and really kind of reach
out to some of those folks thatmight -- you know, for example, the fargo cvb brought in avisitor from new york and kind of dissed fargo and kindof changed the mind. that's what we do intourism marketing. we want to invite them firsthand andgive them a firsthand experience. we're not the same as everybody we'vegot unique assets and attractions here. so i think really that'swhat it comes down to. if we can elevate our image butbe honest about who we are. >> can you tell the folks alittle bit about the heritage
center in bismarck and what they cansee there and what's going on there? >> it's exciting. if you haven't been by statestreet in bismarck lately, i'd encourage you to do that. the heritage center expangs is well underway. i've been in there acouple of weeks ago. they'll start building the exhibitsso the facility can open this fall. it's just going to be a greatshow piece for north dakota, enabling it to just show a lotmore of the exhibits that they
have and some of the collectionsthat they have, but also really unique new ways totell the story. you know, more technology,more space, more amenities. it's going to be a nice,nice addition to the state. >> want to get a littlebit more about the state. to make it clear, where does thedepartment of tourism fall in the organizationalstructure of the state? >> we're a division of the northdakota department of commerce. so, we're part of the department of commercewhich also has economic development and
finance, workforce developmentand community development. so we kind of work inthat area with commerce. we also work with renovation andseveral programs that reside under that umbrella of commerce>> how many employees do you have with the departmentof tourism i guess? >> i have about 13 thatwork in the tourism area. they do everything from, youknow, general travel counseling and delivery of services, likethe rest area brochure racks and some of those services to individual salesto niche groups, like group travel and
international and outdoor promotions and p.r.and general marketing. so all of our positionsare focused on marketing. one of them is more developed towardstourism product development. so working more with our grantsand working to develop more offerings and moretourism businesses. >> okay. with that said, the time we'retalking, the session is not over yet. but how are you faring with thelegislative session this year? >> well, we're excited, the governor putjust under a $3 million increase in for tourism.
$1.5 million of that is slatedto go towards increased marketing, which would help usbe a little bit more competitive with our regional states. the rest will go towards grantsso tourism grants, which we added, the legislature gave usthat last session and we were able to fund anumber of projects. there was a lot of demand justfor some matching one-on-one dollars that would help build again somemore of these attractions to help keep and retain visitors.
>> what about at thecongressional level? people have heard about sequestration andcuts going on there and different things happening. does that affect you in any way >> yeah,it does, because we're part of the federal transportation system. mainly that's whereit affects us. when you're looking at changes at t.s.a.or security, border crossings, obviously we havea large border with canada. our canadian numbers wereup significantly last year.
but if they're going to cut backhours at those border stations, that may affect travel. we've also got somenational parks. we have, you know, the indianvillage as well as north and south units of t.r. nationalpark which staffing may be affected at some of those parks we have more wildlife refugesthan any other park. we have an attraction on birding andhopefully they will remain open. >> sara, obviously the years wehave here we like to go through
destination sites and talka little bit about those. you mentioned theodore rooseveltnational park numerous times already. but big summer plan there? tell us about what's going onthere and what people can see. >> you know, they've alwaysgot stuff going on there. i think it's good for people toget out there, especially if you haven't been out therefor a couple of years. you hear a lot of stories aboutwhat's going on out west. that gives you a goodreason to go out and see.
you know, the hiking is justfabulous out there, horseback riding, you know, watchablewildlife, whether it's the horses or the bison orwhatever you like to do. there's always outdooractivities out there. med >> lake sakakawea, obviouslythe water levels have been up and down over the last ten years anyway,so what's going on out there? >> you know, there have been someexpansions around the lake as well. you're right, the water levels wereup and now they're down a little bit. but still, we've got greatmarinas that were built during
the lower levels that are stillvery viable and have met the needs as those levels drop. but we've got some resortsthat are expanding. indian hills is one of theresorts that is expanding and adding some improvements and cabinsand what in the on the north shore. there's, you know, just a numberof offerings throughout the lake and good summer entertainment andrecreation for sure on lake sakakawea. >> what about the ronaldreagan missile site? is it still a popular site?
>> it is, yeah. you know, it's so unique. it's such a uniquetime in history. so yeah, if you're heading up by thecooperstown area, that's a great venue. they're looking at extending thenational scenic byway up to that point. it's not yet. it's a great jumping on pointif you're coming from there and wandering down through the cheyenne national scenic byway.
>> at many forts and many sayabraham lincoln, can you kind of go through some of theforts people can visit? >> fort abercrombie. they've actually fortified thebank there and they've done some work there in recent years,the historical society has. so that's a great one kind ofout west here -- out east here. then as you go west, fort taughton,not far from devils lake. if you haven't been there, there'sa number of buildings there. there's a bed and breakfast right on sitethat you can actually stay on the fort .
so that's a really funexperience as well. if you go north, lake sakakawea,fort stevenson is right on the lake. there's some, you know, scenicbeauty up there as well as some of the military lifethat you can experience. fort union and fort buford. fort union was the trading hub of the continentand the history there is just really interesting. that's always a funtrip up by willisston. fort lincoln is another one thatcomes to mind right on the banks of the missouri river.
there they've got a combinationof all the recreation facilities with the camping and boatingand hiking and what not. but also the custer house, theinfantry post and indian village. so they have a lot there. >> that seems to be the mostpopular probably because it resonates with morepeople i would think. >> and dav day visitors. they have a lot of interpretation for dayvisitors a lot of fun runs to explore throughout the state.
>> these are always fun thingsto see, but are you finding cities like fargo, bismarck,grand forks, are they becoming more destinationsites in themselves? >> absolutely, yes. in fact, we've got a citystrategy where we market the city experience specifically tosmaller towns within easy reach of our borders and the canadians, becausethey come from the city experience. when you look at some of the venues andnumber of out-of-state folks they attract to their venues for concerts androdeos and events and hockey
games and football games and allthose kind of activities, you know. for example, the season ticketholders for hockey games for 23 states. that's a city experience. you know, those hotels fill,those restaurants are full. u know, the shops, everythingis buzzing on those weekends. that makes thatcity a destination. >> so many people probably think tourismis about the parks and just the parks. it's not just the parks.
>> no, no. absolutely. tourism is kind of a hard industry forpeople to wrap their minds around. the scenic, the resources kind of combinedwith the cash registers that make it an industry, you still needto have the services. i think when you look -- ofcourse a lot of the things we talked about with the parks, there's maybenot a huge cost associated with that. really more of the dollars get spent inthe hotels and restaurants and shopping. >> we haven't talked about theinternational peace gardens yet
how about talk and tell us what peoplecan see and what's going on out there. >> they have activities goingon just about every weekend. so i'd encourage you to go and checkon-line as to what their activities are. with band camp up there, they haveconcert, concert series throughout. you know, their new buildingsup there are beautiful and the gardens are always nice. it's kind of cool because it'sone of the few places you can strattle the borderof two countries. >> you actually go in andyou have to get back out.
better carry yourpassport these ys. >> it's a good idea tohave your passport. >> with that said, you mentionabout canadian traffic, i think you said it's been up. has it just continue --does it continue to go up? can you talk more aboutthe canadian traffic. >> it's somewhat cyclicalon the exchange rate. obviously if the exchange rateis more favorable, the number one activity thatcanadians do is shop.
not that they haveshopping in win paying. winnipeg. it's different. they spent 15% more than in 2011 than they did in 2010. the border crossingswere up significantly. we had about53,000 cars, notbuses or trucks, but cars that crossed the border cominginto north dakota last year. >> wow.
lewis and clark museum inwash burn, great place to -- washburn, great place to visit. tell the folks whatthey can expect. >> nice expansion. i'd encourage you to make thetrip to washburn up highway 83. they did just expandthat facility. brand new exhibits. they have the centennialfarm exhibits up there. so they've got kind of a niceago geren features as well as
the lewis and clark history. that's kind of a nice addition. >> good. you talked a little bit or youmentioned birding and outdoors people. also, hunters and fishermenare part of tourism. we sometimes don't thinkabout this aspect either. how big a part does this play? >> a big part. they're kind of one of ourniches as well that we market.
we've got an outdoor promotionsperson that focuses just on outdoors. that's the number one reasonpeople come to the state. hunting and fishingis part of it. it's not all of it. it involves kayaking and golfing andall of those outdoor activities. hunting and fishing is whatmakes us pretty level in terms of the three-quarters of travelmost people would think that, you know, we're late july, june,august type of a destination. but our springs and falls are fueledmainly by hunting and fishing.
and festivals and events. but it definitely playsan important part. >> sure it does. what about the governor'sphoto contest. i don't know how many yearsthat's been going on. you're going to haveanother one this year? >> we do, we do. it's a fun way to really get some greatphotography from throughout the state. every year it seems to get more popularnow that you can do it on-line.
through flickr we'vegotten great submissions. we do it by category andwe have best of show. we do it on tourism week whichis this time of may each year. i'd encourage people to go toour website, ndtourism.com, see the guidelines andsubmit some photos. >> how many years hasthat been going on? >> i think we probably had it goingon maybe eight, seven or eight years. >> that long. it's popular.
>> digital technology hasbeen a big help for that? >> it's easier for people, yeahpeople can submit on-line. we had almost 800 submissions. >> thinking with cameras, it's mucheasier to develop film, whatever. what's the best partof your job, sara? >> that's hard. you know, i lovethe creative part. i like to figure out how to show northdakota in a really positive light. i can't give up that creativepart, but i also like -- it's so
exciting to see how our stateis developing and growing and trying to pull the piecestogether and help communities and help partners worktogether it's a package. people don't come to northdakota for one thing. they come for acollection of things. working with everybody and kindof pulling together all of those pieces is what makes itreally fun and interesting. >> with that said, what do youthink the biggest challenges are for north dakota tourism?
>> i think we're challenged inthat we don't necessarily have a lot of awarenessand a great image. we're trying to changethat one at a time. when you look at our tourismadvertising research, it shows that even if people didn't visithere, if they saw our ad, they have a better image of us. that makes sense, you show a prettypicture and they know more about you. i think that's it, really tryingto expose more people to the state, bring them in and try toimprove our image so people have
a positive experience and something knowledgeablethat they can say about the state. >> you would think your goals wouldbe just to get more people involved. what are your goals for thenext year, two or three? >> we always want toincrease visitation. we want to make sure we'redelivering a strong return on investment because we're a stateagency and we want to make sure we're showing a payback forthe dollars we're investing. that's always a goal. we always have specific goals forall of our -- and strategies
attached to all of ourmarketing efforts. for example, our brand newwebsite just unveiled. so we've got real strong goalsassociated with that in terms of engagement and uniquevisitors and what not. >> with that said, if peoplewant more information, what's the best place for them to go. >> go on-line, brand new website, ndtourism.comand they'll be able to find -- they can search a lot of different ways, a lotof different cues they can use and hone in thematically or whateverthey want to zone in on.
>> thanks, sara. >> it was fun. >> that's all we have thisweek on "prairie pulse."
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