Hot Springs County Travel and Tourism dollars reaching record levels

At the August Hot Springs County Travel and Tourism meeting, in the financial report, Treasurer Audra Dominguez said, “We did pretty excellent for the tourism dollars coming in. We surpassed our last year’s income by 121% on the month… We’re at $36,680.49 that came in for tourism and that is a record.”

Tourism Chairman Carl Leyba noted that the lodging tax dollars they reported can come from up to three months behind due to the collecting methods involved. The board voted and passed approval to accept the financial report.

Under old business, the memorandum of understanding for the Chamber of Commerce was brought up. Chamber CEO Meri Ann Rush and president Howie Samelson were present. Rush read a letter from the Chamber to the tourism board dated July 27 that was to be shared with the board.

Rush said, “Dear Jackie Dorothy and Carl Leyba, attached is the letter regarding the wage reimbursement for 2022/2023 that was requested at the last Hot Spring’s Travel and Tourism meeting on July 20, 2022. During the meeting, it was stated that according to our lease with the state, the chamber was supposed to be open seven days a week in order for us to have rent waived. I reviewed the contract from October 2016 and it stated in lieu of the month’s rent, this is to be negotiated with the site superintendent. I checked with Kevin Skates and he said there has not been a stipulation of being open seven days a week, year-round in order to waive rent.”

Rush continued and said, “So I just wanted to clear that up because I know that it was brought up at the last meeting. So the chamber not paying rent is not on the stipulation of being open seven days a week year-round. And so I just wanted to answer that question that was asked at the meeting.”

Chairman Leyba thanked Rush for the letter and said that the document would be addressed during their executive session so they can finalize their contract.

Also under old business, the What’s New handout was brought up for discussion. The tourism board plans on making their own version of the handout that is based upon the Wyoming Office of Tourism version. It is a single-page document that will highlight various tourism features to people who have never encountered Hot Springs County before. These features would be new to them. A variety of elements were discussed from the pools, restaurants, campgrounds, hiking trails, fishing and others. 

Additionally, board member Sherman Skelton wanted to see if a QR code could be included in the document that could direct the user to the Chamber’s event calendar. There was further discussion about featuring the Wagonhound Off-road Park, e-bikes, the SonRise Ranch and agritourism. 

In the director’s report, Jackie Dorothy said that on August 30, the Wyoming Office of Tourism will hold a reception at Hot Springs Hotel at 5 p.m.

Also, Dorothy handed out a series of maps of the hiking trails in the Hot Springs State Park area. This map was created by the Friends of Hot Springs State Park and Legend Rock.

Dorothy also said their goal to remember is to have the area’s hotels and vacation rentals signed up with Rocky Mountain Holiday Tours. Dorothy added, “They work with foreign individual travelers rather than groups, so they would be a great fit for our town.”

On September 13-14 there will be 12 total visitors hosted by the Wyoming Office of Tourism to Hot Springs County, which includes international representatives who will get to have first-hand experience of the tourism features here. The event is meant to be an educational piece for the visitors who will report about their time.

In new business, the board welcomed new members, Ryan Shaffer and Will Robinson.

Via Zoom, Herrmann Global gave a presentation about their use of the videos created by Schenck Photography and how successful they have been when it came to marketing campaigns. In the board’s recent winter campaign, one of the videos had over 160,000 views. The campaign was held over the past six months and they are now planning the next one.

The representative said, “We executed that campaign with tremendous results.”

When it came to which videos they used, whether it was the 15-second or 30-second versions, the representative from Hermann Global said, “We typically use a combination of both, tested both, and try and see what’s generating the best amount of attention.

The tourism board said it is time for a new campaign for their billboards and they went over some new designs and made their suggestions. Currently, the board has eight billboards throughout the state, with a cost of $800 for each and has a three-year lifespan. Their brainstorming will continue on and be finalized later. There was a discussion of forming a subcommittee for the design work.