Tourism Organizations Band Together for Annual “Travel Rally Day”

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - The Black Hills and Badlands Tourism Association, along with the South Dakota Department of Tourism and Visit Rapid City hosted their annual “Travel Rally Day” this afternoon for National Travel & Tourism Week.

An analysis shared that in 2021, visitor spending reached an all-time high of 4-point-4 billion dollars.

The majority of visitor activity happened in Minnehaha, Pennington, Lawrence, Brown, and Custer counties. With those areas making up 68 percent of overall visitor spending.

Pennington county saw 40 percent yearly growth in 20-21 compared to 20-20.

Events were held throughout the day to prepare for the future of tourism. Including a “Lit Swap” where organizations can share and swap promotional materials with each other for cross-promotion.

Michelle Thomson, President, Black Hills & Badlands Tourism Association: “The Literature Swap has been going on for 39 years now, and it is a fantastic way for our attractions and tour operators and communities and all sorts of tourism intensive businesses throughout the region to come together, swap their brochures with each other, and also get them to our statewide welcome centers. Our goal is to make sure that everybody has the information that they need to make sure we have a great tourism season. Last year was a tremendous year for us and we are looking forward to having another really great year again in 2022.”

Tomson says that today was a great day of partnership in the tourism industry and that she is excited to kick off the 2022 summer tourism season.

Copyright 2022 KEVN. All rights reserved.