Emery County travel bureau to hit travel shows to promote county

By By

Emery County travel bureau met in their last meetings of the year with the November meeting in Green River and the December meeting in Castle Dale. Vice Chairman Keith Brady welcomed everyone and conducted the meeting. The group discussed the upcoming travel shows. The shows they will attend will be Denver, Sacramento, Salt Lake, and Quartzsite. All members of the bureau will help staff the travel shows, along with several volunteers from the community. The bureau is planning on a Green River expo in April of 2016. They will talk with the coordinators of the Quartzsite show to get direction on putting together a travel show for this area. A possible location for the show is next to the Green River Medical Center.
The board discussed the 2015 Tourism Budget. Transient Room Taxes numbers for the last couple months are down. Visitation numbers are up.
The bureau will visit with UOT and other film companies and let them know they are interested in film projects.
The state parks are doing good. Transient Room Tax is the only tax State Parks pay as a State Entity. Huntington and Millsite are up 35 percent. Paddle boards are really popular so renting them out has made quite a bit of money. Goblin Valley had its Ultra Marathon and it was very successful.
The Trail’s Committee had a successful meeting. They are still working to get the GPS coordinates for the trail’s below Green River. They talked a lot about expanding horse trails in the Emery County Trails Meeting. Deadline for the non-motorized map is coming up.
In the last Potluck meeting they talked about what they wanted to focus on. They would like to focus on the river as a tourism draw. The “Taste of Green River” moved to the first Friday of January.
The Old Spanish Trail Exhibit opening at the San Rafael Museum. The Mammoth exhibit is almost complete and they will be having an open house on Jan. 16 at 6:30 p.m.. John Wesley Powell Museum started up a corporate sponsorship package along with individual membership packages.
At the Buckhorn Information Center the kiosk will be finished and ready to go by spring. The bureau talked about more security out at the Buckhorn Information Center. The board will look at a lock on the inside of the rolling door and a better lock on the outside. The silhouettes were vandalized and so were the water troughs that are nearby. They were able to identify the people who vandalized the water troughs but they deny vandalizing the silhouettes.
Tourism Development and Marketing was discussed. A new map and guide will focus on tourism loops. There will be a meeting in February to plan Roger Brooks visit and what that will entail. The Roger Brooks visit will cost about $30,000 and includes all the towns. Concerns about having a lot of promotional pieces done and have him come and want to change what we have already promoted and planned was a concern of the bureau members.
The bureau discussed travel show staffing for 2015. Someone is needed for the Sacramento Show on January 7-12, but Tina will fill in if nobody can attend. Tina will be at the Denver show but someone else is welcome to go. Lamar can help with the Quartzsite and Sportsman expo. Joshua can help with the Sportsman’s and RV expos. Keith would also like to go to Denver and Quartzsite shows depending on his schedule.
The Green River Expo was discussed. The bureau would like to put a bid out to have someone build the website. The bureau would like the first event to be open by Easter of 2016. The bureau will utilize contacts they already have through Quartzsite to see if they would help with the Green River Expo.
The board approved partnering with state parks for the production of videos highlighting the state parks in Emery County.
Goblin Valley is the most visited state park in Utah. This is partly why they want to expand the park.
The board agreed to start Advertising for two new Western Board Members: The board needs two new Western board members by February. They will be non-tax members. Talks about possible advertising for one East and one West member. We could advertise for one tax and one non-tax member for the East and one non-tax member for the West to help even things out. Lamar Guymon would like to be on the board. Keith can’t be a Commissioner and board representative. Recommendation of possibly Jordan Leonard as a new member. The board will begin advertising.
The 2015 Meeting Dates will be the first Wednesday of each month, when the meeting is in Green River it will be moved to the John Wesley Powell museum.
Carter reported the TRT funds were looking good and revenue has passed last year. The bureau is hoping for continued growth. The restaurant tax is also looking good. The bureau will check and see if the county is receiving the resort tax.
The bureau will print new guides for tourists in the county. The money will come from out of the grant support budget. Money was spent on videos for the state parks. Hunt reported Goblin Valley hired an assistant manager. The ATV Arapeen jamboree will be hosted out of Millsite State Park next year. The participants will be able to book the rides on the state parks site.
Josh Rowley reported the Green River potluck group held their strategic planning meeting. They are looking at hiring an events coordinator for Green River. They are looking for money to put more signs around Green River advertising local attractions. The group will approach the Green River City Council to see if the city can fund an events planner. The group will work on branding Green River.
There will be tourism development and marketing meetings in February.
The board discussed openings on the board. They will advertise for these open positions. In February the bureau will have training on how boards should operate. The bureau set the dates for applying for grant money for early 2015. Organizations requesting monies can apply on line. After the event they must do a completion report. If this report isn’t completed they won’t be considered for grant money the following year. The board discussed having special meetings to approve the grants. They feel the grant process is taking too much time which could be used to discuss marketing and other more high priority subjects. They agreed to discuss grants in the February meeting.
The group discussed the KJAZZ heart of Utah golf tour. They visited here before. The group will ask the golf courses if they saw any benefit from this. It’s $2,500 to have them come to one location. Hunt suggested maybe they visit Green River Golf Course this year and alternate each year.
Commissioner Ethan Migliori asked if the bureau could help support the summer camps program started by the Emery County Economic Development Council. Christine Jensen and the 4H program administer the paleo summer camp which has been a great success bringing students from outside the area into the county to experience life for a week at a dino dig. The cost of the online marketing for the camp is $597. The economic development council will pay the fee and then look to the travel bureau for a possible reimbursement for half the fee.