Travel and Tourism board discusses digital signage

At the August Hot Springs County Travel & Tourism board meeting, Treasurer Audra Dominguez reported that their most recent lodging tax revenue, the first for the fiscal year 2023-2024 was $32,210.84 at 17% less amount change than the previous year. This month’s reporting was $6,468.85 less than the previous year. However, they are 100% above average over the past 13 years, The board voted and passed the approval of the financial report.

In the director’s report, Jackie Dorothy said, “We are working virtually to update our Google Analytics to the new platform on Thermopolis.com. We are installing tags from GoDaddy and once that is accomplished, should be back up and running. “

In old business, Chairman Carl Leyba and the board discussed the digital signage project where there were three options for them to get power to the digital sign location, a process which could take a year. They first have to get a service agreement, then a pole location with its costs, then a contract, and then an electrician to bid on the work. The board said they will work to get a contract to move forward. 

The board also discussed their billboard design. At this time, they have a slight change to the design of two locations that need sooner replacement. However, they need to do a new overall design for future billboards and therefore have formed a subcommittee to discuss the future designs. In the more recent design, the board wanted to explore adding a QR code to the image, which could lead to one of their YouTube videos so they can measure how many people see this particular billboard. 

In new business, the board discussed that they have their budget submitted to the Wyoming State Auditors. They will also do their Self-Audit and seek outside local help to bring in “different eyes and transparency” to their numbers.

Also discussed was the coming Fall Summit in Yellowstone Park, October 25-26. Chairman Leyba said this is an educational type of conference where there will be various vendors and speakers and an opportunity to network with other communities.