Gem State a destination state

COEUR d'ALENE - Things are improving in Idaho's travel and tourism industry.

Diane Norton, tourism manager of the Idaho Division of Tourism, gave a State of the State Tourism Industry presentation during the eighth annual North Idaho Tourism Summit at the Best Western Plus Coeur d'Alene Inn Thursday. She reported that numbers show an upward trend in visitors to Idaho, reflected by the taxes on the sales of hotels, motels and private campground accommodations.

"Tax collections. Wow," she said. "For the first year, last year, we broke over $8 million. This year we're on record to probably get close to $9 million.

"The economy is coming back. It's getting stronger and people are traveling."

Norton touched on four main points: A statewide update, the U.S. Travel Association meetings she recently attended in Washington, D.C., the "18 Summers" campaign and what's coming next for tourism in the Gem State.

She said tourism officials are really striving to hit the $10 million mark by next year because as travel-related sales increase, so do the funds that can be used to boost marketing and public relations promoting Idaho.

"This is a really good picture," Norton said. "We're really excited about this."

She said according to the U.S. Travel Association, which works with all the states and provides information and statistics, travelers to Idaho spent $4.2 billion in 2013, "which generated $549.5 million to federal, state and local governments, jobs, public programs, police, firefighters, teachers, road projects, etc., so this number looks really good and also the employment number, as well."

In the next fiscal year, Norton said a perception study will be conducted to acquire an update on how people view Idaho. This study will help businesses, restaurants, hotels and lodging areas better understand their clientele. The last one was conducted 16 years ago.

"The reason being is that we don't know what people think of us," she said. "Since 1999, if you take potatoes off the table, what do they know about us? Back then, they knew nothing about us, so it's time to say, 'OK, let's go back out, let's see what people think about Idaho.'"

At U.S. Travel's Destination Capitol Hill convention in March, Norton spoke to travel directors from other states to compare and contrast problems and successes. She said she also had the opportunity to interface with Idaho legislators such as Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo and Reps. Mike Simpson and Ral Labrador.

"The message was 'We're here, please support things that are important to our industry,' and 'How do I interface with you moving forward to make sure if there are some issues that you are unaware of that I can let you know?'" she said.

Initiatives Idahoans will see this year are the "18 Summers" campaign, which focuses on having family adventures in the Gem State, and the Brand USA Great Outdoors National Parks Service "Find Your Park" national campaign.

"It's any park, and what do we have in Idaho? Ka-ching!" Norton said. "State parks, national monuments - I mean, we can score big time on this."

Norton said people are anxious to get outdoors, a concept on which the tourism division is focusing this year.

"We have embraced this through our annual conference ICORT (Idaho Conference on Recreation and Tourism) which is May 5-7 this year in Boise," she said. "But more importantly, we use that to kind of bang our drum and say, 'Hey, we're cool, we got it going on in Idaho,' and this year the theme is 'Travel is?'"

She said people are invited to follow Visit Idaho on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and share what they think travel is all about in Idaho through photos, videos, messages and more.

The "18 Summers" campaign encourages people to spend time with their children and make memories during the 18 summers they have while their kids are still at home. It was softly launched last year, but will be "burning a little bit hotter and heavier" this year, Norton said.

Also, Idaho is working with other states to promote the Idaho Backcountry Discovery Route, an off-road, 1,250-mile motorcycle route that was just completed in Idaho and has already been implemented in several Western states including Washington, Utah, Colorado and Arizona with more happening in New Mexico and Arizona.

"It is spectacular," Norton said. "We're working with Washington to help promote the whole concept and idea, also Utah and Arizona because you can do this route from Arizona all the way to the Canadian border how they connected it together."

Deb Wheeler, tourism grant administrator for the Post Falls Chamber of Commerce, said she thinks Idaho does a great job with tourism funding, organizing and outreach.

"The state of Idaho does spend a lot of money promoting tourism to the entire state," Wheeler said. "It's funded by the hotel tax that we have here and that tax is divided up into grants for the different areas."

She said when it comes to tourism, North Idaho is a prime destination because of several factors - the lake, the people, the mountains and The Coeur d'Alene Resort, to name a few.

"This is a really good spot to be in because we're right along the freeway corridor," she said.

National Travel and Tourism Week will be celebrated May 2-10, when industry professionals will be promoting the contributions their markets and organizations make to the national economy.

Info: www.ustravel.org or www.visitidaho.org