Travel and Tourism discusses Keys to the City promotion

The Travel and Tourism Board meeting opened to news that the lodging tax revenue hit a record low of 41 percent, but the yearly revenue is still up 11 percent. Speculation from board members suggested it was caused by a mass exodus of crew workers.

Tourism Director Amanda Moeller reported to the board they would not be charged for the Waltman billboard new Dino-opolis design due to the fact the company put the wrong one up to begin with. The current design has two emerging dinosaurs from a rainforest; the sign asks “Are we there yet?” with the distance of 81 miles left to Thermopolis.

Moeller reported the Keys to the City promotion has had some hiccups. One issue is that it has become confusing to recipients of the keys. Some participants are misunderstanding that not all participating venders honor the same discounts. She used the pools in the park as an example. One pool may offer a discount on entry fees while the other pool may only offer the discount on merchandise.

Board president Carl Leyba showed the board a roster and said the program does offer good tracking information of where people are traveling from for future reference. A business has requested more keys. Due to the time frame that it takes to get new ones made, Moeller said she would have to redistribute keys from businesses that have hardly given any away to those businesses running out.

Sandy Newscome reported the State Tourism Board requested $33 million. The Governor approved most of it but denied $750,000. Three million will be used for international translations on advertising overseas. Newscome also mention if they get a chance to talk to any of the state legislators to ask them to vote for tourism.

There will be no meeting for the board in February. The next meeting is scheduled for March 15.