February lodging tax collections high

At the March Travel and Tourism board meeting, treasurer Audra Dominguez presented the financial report. For the month of February, they collected $13,611.70 in lodging tax revenue, which is a change of 84% compared to the previous year. The board has never seen numbers this high before.

Additionally, there are no local construction projects going on and therefore these numbers reflect actual tourism dollars. As a reminder, lodging tax revenue is collected by hotels, motels, or short-term rentals from tourists. It is not collected from local residents. The board voted and approved to accept the financial report.

Tourism director Jackie Dorothy gave her report and said she wants to do a campaign connecting Hot Springs County to the Yellowstone National Park and their 150th Anniversary. Dorothy said that tourists in Yellowstone want to swim in the hot springs there, but obviously, they cannot, therefore they need to know about the pools in the Hot Springs State Park. Dorothy added, “We also have the Wind River Canyon Scenic By-Way, which was originally the Yellowstone Highway and built so cars could travel to the park.”

Regarding Rocky Mountain International (RMI), Dorothy said their partnership with RMI includes Marketplace One for five days, which is in Fargo this year. The event is akin to speed dating, where there are tables with tourism reps and foreign booking agents who meet and get to know what they offer.

In old business, the Travel and Tourism board still has an opening for a member for the At Large position. This can be anyone who is a resident in Hot Springs County and they are not required to have a lodging business. Those interested in applying need to contact East Thermopolis town hall. 

Dorothy is working on a schedule to bring in tour operators to provide training on how to work with international tourists and their booking companies.

In new business, Enoch Hart from Wyoming Signs located in Casper presented several possible brands and specs for a digital sign that would be placed at the fairgrounds. The Travel and Tourism board would potentially fund the sign but would not own it. The Fair Board who manages the grounds would be the owner. The possible size of the sign would be 10 feet tall and 12 feet wide, with pixels at 10 millimeters big. Hart provided three different brands of display systems, with each having a different cost. Since the specifics are not completely decided upon, the board is asking for a request for proposal from Hart as they keep exploring the project.

Dorothy noted that the digital sign would not be used for ads for businesses and would not be used to create ad revenue. Instead, it would be used for notifying the public of events or information related to non-profit organizations. Additionally, they hope to collaborate with Bill Gordon of emergency management with any related notifications. 

The life span of the sign is about 10 years and there is no annual operation cost. Hart said that these signs are very well built and have parts and labor warranties with them. Typically, all repairs are done remotely as technicians tap into the sign and adjust the software.

Regarding billboards, Dorothy said they need to continue discussing the matter and decide where the locations should be and keep those locations in mind.

During open floor discussion, guests John Fenton and Kim Bartlett were present and brought up concerns about the metal 307 signs that were mentioned in the Travel and Tourism newspaper article to potentially be placed in Wind River Canyon. They stated they were against that idea and Barlett said, “The canyon speaks for itself.”

At the February Travel and Tourism meeting, Dorothy brought up 307 Signs who design and manufacture metal signs that promote the state. Some of their work can be seen along the highway between Casper and Shoshoni. During the February meeting Dorothy proposed that signs could be made to be put up on the Wind River Canyon or elsewhere and could have graphical figure themes such as outlaw, dinosaurs, fishing, etc. At that earlier meeting, Dorothy said she would work on getting some financial numbers and other details prior to their planning session for this possible project.

During discussion at the March meeting, Bartlett said she felt that the signs should have designs that respect Native Americans. There was discussion about the designs and how, for Hot Springs County, they could have designs that reflect dinosaurs or the outlaw west. Dorothy noted that the designs of the 307 signs are up to their own creative direction.