Travel and Tourism board report

At the April 21 Hot Springs County Travel and Tourism Board meeting, Treasurer Matt Hughes presented the financial report.

Hughes said for March the lodging tax receipts are $8,288.66 with interest income at $8.64, totalling to $8,297.30. The month was down from last year, but up 10% from the historical average.

For the nine months ending in March, their lodging tax receipts are $133,301.73 and they are 75% through the fiscal year. The year to date receipts are 76.2% of their planned $175,000. They are almost perfectly on track with their spending and budget. 

In the director’s report, Jackie Dorothy said they are working on a new website map and layout for hotspringswyoming.com. They are writing new material and adding a transportation page.

For their work with Truly360, they are updating the Google business listing and will schedule their 360 degree photo shoot for June.

Dorothy met with the Wind River Visitor’s Council new marketing director and will be planning future partnerships in advertising.

Regarding a new digital billboard, Dorothy met with the Fair Board at their monthly meeting and they are excited about partnering with the tourism board with this project and others in the future.

Hot Springs State Park Superintendent Kevin Skates is looking into potential grants and they may be considering approaching Bill Gordon about emergency funding.

The tourism board needs to decide the amount of money they want to contribute and the minimum size of the digital billboard and then hopefully scale it up as more partnerships contribute to the funding of the project. The billboard size of four feet by eight feet at $40,000 was thought of as too small. They want to make sure the drivers can see and read the sign successfully. 

Consultants Darren Rudloff and Berkely Young recommended they get a “scenic turnout” sign for the view at Hospital Hill so that tourists can pull off to view the state park and terraces. Dorothy said they were amazed by the view. 

In new business, board member and treasurer Matt Hughes submitted his resignation letter. He is no longer offering a vacation rental. He said, “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every moment of serving.” 

In his vacancy the board appointed new member Audra Dominguez as the replacing treasurer. 

Also, to assist the financial management of the board, they passed a motion to get a license subscription at no more than $100 per month for QuickBooks.

Board member Bob Roos reported on billboard designs that they have used throughout the state. Roos asked many people at various locations to drive around and gather feedback about the billboards and if they gained the drivers’ attention. Roos said he had zero responses, “No one saw a sign”. He picked around 30 people to help him in this study.

There was much discussion about this issue, some brought up billboard fatigue and color issues. Roos is passionate about getting the billboard designs improved and making them effective.

Chairman Carl Leyba discussed how married couples and their relationship dynamics while traveling factor into the attention grabbing nature of billboards. Leyba said the women are more able to notice them in the seconds they have while passing by. He said the men are focused on driving down the road. He added that young people typically are not interested in billboards and if they have a QR code on them, then young people can use their smartphones to capture the image and look up the data. In the end, the board wants to critique what they have and make improvements. 

Dorothy presented two spring ads using both a male and female voice each. 

Also, Dorothy said for their summer video production with Schenck Photography they wanted to switch out the three minute story video of the state park trails and replace it with a three minute story video featuring Boysen State Park and the Marina. Jeb Schenck was present and reported that owners of the Marina are on board for production work and the Boysen State Park Supervisor has given permission to fly drones for the shooting. The details of the script for this and the other videos are being worked out. Schenck will present the scripts and production schedule later for the board’s review. The tourism board voted and approved this content change.

Board member Audra Dominguez brought up a potential request to have artists paint beautiful murals on the sides of buildings in the town. The artists would need funding for the paint but would offer their talent. Board member Bob Roos suggested she talk to Howie Samelson of Main Street Thermopolis to explore the idea. 

Dorothy said she is working on writing the articles and layout for their summer magazine to determine the optimal number of ads to sell. There will also be a winter magazine later in the year. For the summer magazine some of the content will cover the hot springs pools, Legend Rock with info by archeologist Larry Lorendorf, info on the Wind River Canyon and Boysen Reservoir and Marina and many other subjects.

The tentative schedule for its production is that in April and May they sell the ads and do a mockup layout, and in June and July, they distribute. They plan on using the same printer in Riverton that they used in their previous magazine. Legend Rock Media, owned by Jackie Dorothy, will earn a 20% commission to sell the ads. 

For over 35 years the Thermopolis Independent Record has published a Visitor Guide each year, with the exception of last year due to COVID. The IR intended to print their publication again this year. However, small businesses in Thermopolis cannot support two tourism publications.

There were discussions last year about a collaboration between the Independent Record, Chamber of Commerce and Travel and Tourism but the tourism board chose to move forward on their own.