Oil isn't the only business that's booming in North Dakota these days.
The tourism industry is flourishing, thanks to a combination of affordable prices, a strong Canadian dollar and some savvy marketing. The North Dakota Tourism Division just released numbers that show substantial growth in the state's tourism industry that even outpaces the national average.
Sara Otte Coleman, tourism director, said with year-to-date numbers in key areas coming in substantially higher than in 2009, North Dakota is on track for an outstanding summer travel season.
The North Dakota Tourism Division states year-to-date revenue per available hotel room is up 10.8 percent, national park visitation is up 20 percent, airline boardings are up 12 percent statewide, and Canadian border crossings are not only up 24 percent over 2009, they are also 15 percent higher than the five-year average.
Coleman said there are a number of reasons why the state is doing so well, chief among them being a consistent marketing campaign that stressed value even before the national economic downturn began.
"We've been marketing regionally for a number of years and have been very targeted within the region. Our messaging has focused on our affordability and I think that that's resonating well with the economy the way it continues to be," Coleman said. "Obviously the Canadian exchange rate comes into play as a strong motivator for those Canadian border crossing numbers that are continuing to increase."
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Canadian numbers up
Along with a strong exchange rate for the Canadian dollar, Coleman said they are expanding their marketing campaign up there to reach even more potential visitors. She said a "later" campaign is going on right now over the radio that will hopefully drive people to a newspaper insert that will encourage late-summer and fall travel.
Another telling number Coleman pointed to as proof of the successful marketing campaign up north is a 400 percent increase in Canadian tourism inquiries.
"I think a lot of that is because we're reaching new Canadians. People that are used to coming to North Dakota and have come a number of times, maybe come several times throughout the year, would not be as likely to call and ask for information," Coleman said. "Whereas those who are exposed to our marketing materials' call to action (are encouraged to) call today, log on today, plan today. So that's a strong indication that people are responding to our marketing and we're attracting new Canadians, not kind of the standard reliable ones that come back again and again."
Coleman added the sheer number of people close to the border in the Winnipeg area - a population center whose closest match in the region is Minneapolis - also help draw in a large amount of new Canadian tourists.
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Other areas doing well
She also called the national park numbers pretty astonishing. Coleman said the 20 percent increase this year is on top of a 15 percent increase last year.
"Granted, national parks across the country was one of the sectors that fared well. Most travel in other parts of the country last year was down pretty significantly," she said. "National parks fared well, but I believe they were only up about five percent nationwide. So we're definitely showing exceeding growth well above what they're seeing in other parts of the country."
Coleman believes much of the appeal in visiting a national park is that it feels like a good, comfortable vacation. She said perhaps families who thought about visiting a national park in the past are doing so now because it feels like a less extravagant vacation that focuses more on being with family and less on hurrying from one place to another.
Hotel numbers are another area Coleman is excited about. She said North Dakota is the only state that finished with a positive reading last year, and is now seeing strong growth above that this year. Although there was one area of concern Coleman had, it turned out to be much ado about nothing.
"We were a little worried because of our growth in business travel, that maybe the attractions or parks or visitors centers may suffer because people were here just for business," she said. "But the last time we looked into the more detailed research, it showed us that a lot of those business travellers are also leisure travellers, and that appears to be the case because attraction numbers and visitors center numbers are also up."
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Virtual offerings
While North Dakota might offer a variety of hunting, fishing, hiking and other vacation activities that let people get back to nature, that doesn't mean the marketing has to be done via carrier pigeon or pony express.
The state tourism division has been expanding its online presence recently and so far the early numbers show that was a wise decision.
"We have obviously been trying to get people engaged. I think there's a lot of talk about social media and a lot of talk about digital and whatnot, but the key for us is really to get people engaged. Not only telling the story but really passionately telling the story and being advocates for North Dakota," Coleman said. "So our branding campaign this year (is) challenge people. Our branding is 'North Dakota Legendary - I am Legendary,' and then we pose the question, 'RU?'
"Challenging them to say, OK come on out, hike in the Badlands, ride horse in the Kildeer Mountains, try to break the walleye record, see how many state historic sites you can visit in one weekend. Those kind of challenges we've been posing and trying to encourage folks to then post their videos, post their photos, blog about their experience, because that's really how people like to learn about travel destinations now, is through other third parties rather than just listening to the marketers."
A new mobile site aimed at smartphones and other cellular devices that can access the Internet just launched in May. Coleman said people don't necessarily plan very far in advance, and this gives them another way to access the information most relevant to making those last-minute planning decisions.
Another popular addition that's brand new this year is the virtual travel guide, which puts all 153 pages of the state's 2010 travel guide on the Internet for people to instantly access. In addition to being able to print any pages they want for future reference, visitors can click on many of the advertising links for lodging, local events and many other things and be taken directly to the corresponding Web site.
"It really is very user friendly. People can page through, take a look at stuff, print the pages they're interested in, and really have more of that magazine-type feel, if that's kind of how they like to learn and read about travel destinations," Coleman said.
Another area she will be looking at in the future is an iPhone app. With AT&T, currently the only carrier for the iPhone in the United States, finally coming to North Dakota in the coming months, Apple's ubiquitous smartphone will be more readily available to North Dakota residents, making an app for the device a possible next step.
"I could just spend my whole budget just on digital and mobile stuff, you know? There's just so many fun ways to communicate with people," she said. "One of the questions we're gonna have is the iPhone is so popular with travellers, a lot of states and cities developing apps. While we don't have it here, yet, we've gotta be looking at all those things."
While she doesn't have much in the way of specific tourism numbers from around the state, Coleman did say that of the five major city areas - Bismarck, Fargo, Ward County, Grand Forks County and Stutsman County - Ward County has seen the strongest growth in the accommodation sector through June.
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Minot tourism
The Magic City plays a big part in making Ward County the best of the best with regards to statewide tourism. Wendy Howe, executive director of the Minot Convention and Visitors Bureau, said she is seeing a definite rise in tourism numbers at the local level.
She noted that Minot is the regional hub for the northwest part of the state and is benefiting from not only a close proximity to the Canadian border, but from the active oil and energy industry as well.
"Locally we are doing very, very well. Canadian requests for information continue to be on the rise, we continue to see the traffic to our Web site - not only from Canadians but from people all across the Midwest - increasing, we've seen requests for more visitors packets to be sent out, we're seeing more visitors in the visitors center," Howe said. "So definitely tourism is on the rise this year."
Howe said border crossings are up about 33 percent for Minot, and in the second quarter of the year information requests from Canadians were up about 20 percent.
She also noted there are many more relocation requests from people planning a move to the Minot area who want information on the area as well as what the quality of life is like.
With a growing tourism industry comes a problem that visitors to the Magic City usually don't have to deal with outside of major events like the State Fair or Norsk Hstfest - finding a hotel room.
"I think Minot is in a unique situation with how busy we are. We've really taken on the role this year of trying to retrain our visitor to call and make the reservation before they come. In the past they've been able to just come down and find lodging when they get here," Howe said. "And because we're so busy and seeing such a high occupancy rate we're now trying to train the visitor to make sure that they call for reservations before they come."
New hotels popping up should help with that problem, and new apartments will hopefully get people out of extended-stay situations in hotels to open up even more rooms. Still, Minot has a hotel occupancy rate of 77 percent for the year so far, which is very strong compared to the rest of the country. Howe said the Smith Travel Report states nationally the occupancy rate is just 56 percent, while statewide that rate is bumped up to 65 percent.
"You know, 77 percent occupancy would make a lot of our competitors around the region and across the U.S. very jealous," Howe said.
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Internet information
Virtual traffic is doing just as well as real traffic, according to Howe, She said hits on the Minot CVB Web site are up, with a significant amount of traffic coming from Canada, eastern Montana, western North Dakota, and even a bit from eastern North Dakota.
Like the state, Minot has a travel guide that can be accessed online. Howe said it has been very popular and sees that trend growing in the future.
"People are going more to the electronic forms of communication, and that includes the visitors guide. We obviously still print visitors guides and will need to continue to do that in the future, but more and more people don't want to take the time to request a visitors guide," Howe said. "They're probably planning more on short notice or they just want to be able to jump online and look at the guide and go through it without having to request it, and then print off the pages that they need."
Unlike the state, Minot has no mobile site. Howe said they have looked at creating one, but that is an expensive affair and the rapid advance of technology might make mobile sites obsolete sooner rather than later.
"What we are hearing in our industry is that smartphones are going to be changing and that you won't need mobile sites in the next year or two, that they will be able to pick up your site just like it is without having a mobile site," Howe said. "So we're kind of watching that before we make the investment into a mobile site because they are not cheap to do."
Speaking of smartphones, Howe is well aware of the iPhone's impending introduction to North Dakota. She said they've been looking at the possibility of doing an iPhone app for the past few months and now that Apple's smartphone will be showing up soon, an app is definitely something that will be moved up on their priority list.
Until that time, Howe said they are using technology that is very widespread and inexpensive to get the word out about how great it is in the Magic City.
"One thing that we've found very strong is our social media. Using Facebook, using our blog, using Twitter and YouTube, we've really found that that has been extremely beneficial, It's a very, very inexpensive way of getting continuous messages out to people that you know are interested about Minot," Howe said. "They're a fan of our Facebook page, they click on the YouTube channel that we have specifically set up for Minot and they're able to use the videos that we regularly put out there about events that are happening in the community.
"So that social media has been something that we've found is really being used more and more by visitors."
