South Dakota international tourism.

According to most accounts, foreign tourists seem to be flooding the United States. The U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce, reported in May 1994 that visitors from abroad had spent about $74.4 billion in this country during 1993. As Americans

What about South Dakota? While it is difficult to come up with reliable statistics, there are nevertheless plenty of indications that international tourism is becoming increasingly important for the state. According to television news reports, the recent Northern Plains Tribal Arts Show in Sioux Falls attracted visitors from throughout the United States, but also from several foreign nations. A segment on KELO television showed the crew of a popular German television program filming a German lady's dream trip, taking her throughout South Dakota. South Dakota's largest newspaper, the Argus Leader, reported on September 6 that foreign visitors helped make the summer of 1994 one of the best for the state's tourism industry. The paper quoted Al Mueller, owner of the well-known Al's Oasis restaurant (outside Chamberlain), as saying "foreign travel, especially from Central Europe, is just an unlimited market. They're coming in busloads, and they seem to have a lot of money." In the same report, Mike Rodman, president of the Deadwood Gaming Association, referred to visitors from other countries as an important source of revenue.

Additional evidence of the importance of international tourism for South Dakota comes from the Rocky Mountain Roundup '94 which took place in Rapid City on June 11. The regional travel fair was fully sold out with 37 South Dakota entities participating, including the "1880 Train" Black Hills Central Railroad and the "World's Only Corn Palace". Many Wyoming tourist attractions were also represented at this fair, which gave European tour operators a chance to become familiar with what South Dakota and other western states have to offer.

Finally, virtually all of the South Dakota receptive operators offer their services in several languages.

Why are we seeing so many foreign tourists? Above all, the cost of visiting the United States has become quite reasonable. The Germans, for example, currently pay less than 1.6 German marks for a U.S. dollar. That is about one-third of what they had to pay some years ago. The Japanese pay less than 100 yen per dollar which is almost one-fourth of its value about ten years ago. International airfares also have become much more reasonable due to increased competition and much lower fuel prices.

S.D Receptive Tour Operators Offering Multi-Lingual Services

International Golf Tours                         Aberdeen
American Tours West                              Keystone
Rushmore-Borglum Tours                           Keystone
Affordable Adventures                            Rapid City
Gray Line of the Black Hills                     Rapid City
Jack Rabbit Bus Lines and Tours                  Sioux Falls

The United States government has also helped make visits to America easier by eliminating entry visa requirements for citizens of our most important overseas markets, such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, Even entrance procedures, such as custom inspections, have improved considerably.

Another factor which has boosted international tourism in this part of the U.S. is that most foreign tourists consider this region, unlike the East and West coasts, to be quite safe. Many tourists who have previously visited other parts of the United States are now ready to experience the "heartland" of America.

It is also very important to remember that the "Western Culture" is very popular in much of Europe. At one point, Germany was reported to have close to one thousand Western Clubs, where everyday people would dress up as Cowboys and Indians to stage "Wild West" events. Many German towns also host Karl May festivals, most of which have "Western" themes. The majority of young Germans have read many of Karl May's adventure books dealing with America's "Wild West." It is perhaps of interest to note that it has been claimed that Karl May may have used the findings of the Maxmillian/Bodmer expedition (1832-33) up the Missouri, as the basis for many of his books. Numerous Karl Bodmer (a Swiss artist) drawings of both Indians and Missouri Valley scenes are displayed in the Joslyn Museum in Omaha. A few copies are also located in the Iowa Welcome Center in Sioux City. The great success in Europe of such films as Dances with Wolves has intensified the desire of many to visit western states like South Dakota.

However, it should be made clear that both Europeans and tourists from the Far East (Japan, Korea and Taiwan) also enjoy the wide open spaces of South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. To appreciate this better, one has to remember that both Europe and the Far East are very densely populated. Finally, such sights as Mount Rushmore, Devil's Tower, and Yellowstone National Park are well-known throughout the world and therefore attract many visitors.

Marketing of South Dakota

With such a great potential abroad to attract foreign tourists, what does South Dakota do to encourage overseas visitors?

Actually, the greatest number of foreign tourists do not even have to cross an ocean to visit the Mount Rushmore state. To boost the number of Canadians visiting South Dakota, the S.D. Department of Tourism has been advertising in both newspapers and on television in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

The Old West Trail Association (OWTA), a non-profit joint venture of Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming founded in 1964, has also assisted in marketing the area in Canada by being involved in a sports show in Canada. On the other hand, the Black Hills Badlands & Lakes Association of South Dakota has for the time being stopped advertising in Canada. Bill Honerkamp, the president of the association, explained that the low value of the Canadian dollar (recently it was worth no more than 70 U.S. cents) has apparently reduced by 70 percent the number of Canadian tourists visiting the Black Hills/Badland area. Canada's economy has also faced a number of other problems. In the large city of Winnipeg, which is only a few hours away from South Dakota, unemployment was recently reported to be more than ten percent.

During the administration of Governor Richard Kneip, South Dakota shared a promotional office in Frankfurt, Germany with the other member states of the Old West Regional Commission. The purpose of that office was not only to boost tourism, but also to encourage area exporting to Europe and promote so called "reverse investments" (European investments in the member states). After federal funding for this undertaking ceased, Nebraska maintained the office for its own promotion activities. However, the high expense of maintaining that office forced our neighbor to the south to abandon it about three years ago.

It should be noted that the Old West Trail Association referred to earlier, had been active in Europe as well. As Dawn Mazio, its former executive director pointed out, OWTA in the past represented the area at the London Trade Show, hosted tourism groups from aboard and supplied tourism information material to the different USSTA offices abroad. OWTA even produced a promotional film for viewers abroad. However, as Blake A. Krabseth, OWTA's current Director of Membership pointed out, a drastic decline in funding forced the Old West Trail Association to reduce its promotions abroad.

In 1990, South Dakota teamed up with Wyoming and Montana (Idaho joined this group recently) to market in the United Kingdom and Germany under the auspices of Rocky Mountains International (RMI) of Cheyenne, Wyoming. RMI is represented in both London and Frankfurt and has plans to extend its services to France and the BENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg) countries.

Among its many activities, it contacts travel agents and tour operators to encourage them to include RMI client states in their programs. RMI publishes an annual detailed guidebook entitled The Real America for distribution to the travel trade and the public in Europe and elsewhere. During the past year, about 50,000 copies of this dual-language (English and German) publication were distributed. For 1995, RMI plans to publish two separate editions - one in English and the other in German.

Rocky Mountains International also sponsors overseas missions to attend such trade shows as the Pow Wow Europe in Brussels, the World Travel Market in London and the ITB travel trade show in Berlin (Germany's largest). It also arranged the Rocky Mountain Roundup '94 in Rapid City, and elsewhere, which was discussed early in this report. RMI has also been involved in a strong film promotion program in both the United Kingdom and Germany, under which viewers of such video features as City Slickers were asked to call for information and a free trip to the RMI region.

More recently, South Dakota has become more involved with another grouping under the auspices of American Rockies International (ARI) of Englewood, Colorado. This organization was born in 1987 of a joint effort of both Colorado and Wyoming with the strong encouragement of United Airlines.

In 1990, South Dakota was asked to join the regional effort due to the strong international image of Mount Rushmore. (By the way, it should be mentioned that RMI appears to have a special relationship with an airline as well - Continental.)

Probably due to the very high cost of doing business in Japan, ARI does not maintain an office there, but appears to work mainly through the USTTA (United States Travel and Tourism Administration) Tokyo office, which also conducts limited marketing activities in Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong.

Thanks to ARI, a group of tour operators from Osaka visited the Black Hills in June. In August, the Black Hills Badlands & Lakes Association hosted a similar group from Taiwan.

Rapid City is looking to its sister city relationship with a Japanese town as a possible means to attract additional Far Eastern tourists. Governor Walter D. Miller and Dee Dee Raap, Marketing Director of the South Dakota Department of Tourism, visited Imaichi City and its Western Village in November 1994 for the sister city document signing ceremony. The first group of about 150 visitors from there, including government officials and journalists, is scheduled to arrive in Rapid City by charter flight February 2, according to Richard Oakland, South Dakota State Coordinator for Sister Cities International.

Several other South Dakota towns maintain sister city relationships in Europe, which so far do not seem to have been fully explored for their tourism potential, regardless of the fact that they are located in some of the most important markets.

Perhaps another excellent way to attract foreign tourists would be to make sure that the hundreds of foreign students studying in South Dakota receive a good introduction to the main tourist attractions. Some of them could possibly be recruited to help in guiding foreign tourists through the state or at many of the main sights. Most European students, for example, speak at least two other languages, as it is a requirement to graduate from high school there.

It is also of interest to note that the U.S. Travel & Tourism Administration does not seem to play a major role in South Dakota. One might also ask why other airlines, other than United and Continental, don't seem to play a greater role in attracting foreign tourists.

For example, among foreign airlines, KLM, the Dutch airline, serves Minneapolis non-stop, and indeed is part owner of Northwest Airlines. And Martinair, the Dutch charter air carrier serves Denver on a weekly basis non-stop from Amsterdam. It probably would not hurt attracting more Dutch visitors to the state. And South Dakotans would probably not mind if the Dutch visitors would also use the opportunity to visit some of their brethren in Orange City, Iowa (known for its Tulip Festival), only a short distance from Sioux Falls.

The Impact on South Dakota's Economy Unfortunately, very little reliable data is available to judge the impact of international tourism on South Dakota's economy. While the South Dakota Department of Tourism provides detailed information on hotel and motel occupancy as well as campground use, no details are given as to where the visitors came from. One would assume that this would be very useful information for marketing purposes.

The latest information issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce in January of 1994 provides data for 1990. One may assume that much has changed since that time.

1990 International Visitor Travel Expenditures
South Dakota ($ millions)

Public Transport                         $ 3.1
Auto Transport                             2.2
Lodging                                    9.1
Food Service                               7.7
Entertainment & Recreation                 3.4
General Retail                             6.0

Total                                    $31.6 million

The USTTA division of the U.S. Department of Commerce promised to issue more recent data by the end of 1994.

Rocky Mountain International recently released the following data:

South Dakota - UK Group
Market Dollar Impact

1992                       $6,031,904
1993                       $5,521,673
1994                       $4,822,727

(A decrease of $698,946 in one year.)
South Dakota - German Group
Market Dollar Impact

1992                       $ 7,429,796
1993                       $14,684,855
1994                       $15,271,970

(An increase of $587,115 in one year.)

However, the above information figures are based on the numbers of tours offered, but not on actual tours taken. And as Erik Stone, RMI sales coordinator points out, "over 90 percent of tourists from Europe are FIT (foreign independent tourists) and are not on a bus."

But there is no question that thanks to the marketing efforts of RMI, the number of overnight stays in South Dakota, especially of German speaking tourists, has increased significantly.

Overnights offered in South Dakota

                1991         1992         1993         1994

UK               732          863          790          436
German          1018         1063         2101         2185

Source: RMI FY '94 Annual Report

No similar information was available regarding the Asian market. However, American Rockies International is in the process of collecting data and promised to issue it by the end of 1994.

Conclusion

Although there are problems with accurately measuring the impact of international tourism on the economy of South Dakota, it is quite obvious that the number of foreign tourists visiting the Mount Rushmore state is steadily increasing. It is not just in the Black Hills. German youth groups, for example, have visited Vermillion (as part of its sister city program) for more than ten years and included in their programs, stops in Tripp, Freeman,Chamberlain and Eureka. Jack Rabbit Bus Lines and Tours reported increasing interest by Japanese tourists in agricultural sights and the history of Laura Ingalls-Wilder.

The big question is whether South Dakota is prepared for this flood of foreign tourists. For example, how many South Dakota banks are able to sell U.S. dollars in exchange for German marks, British pounds or Japanese yen? Tour operators have reported in the whole Black Hills area, for example, there is only one financial institution to which they can take their clients to purchase U.S. dollars. Any American having travelled abroad knows that in most countries, money can not only be exchanged at most banks, but often also at airports, train stations and even post offices. Another question is as to how many communities maintain lists of interpreters in case our foreign guests face some difficulties communicating in a restaurant, hotel or even in a hospital? So, while much is being done to promote South Dakota tourism abroad, more might need to be done to make the tourist feel more welcome once they have arrived in South Dakota.

Benno Wymar grew up in the hospitality business. To follow in the footsteps of his family, he was enrolled in an apprenticeship program in a large hotel in Wuppertal, Germany. Prior to earning a Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, he gained additional hospitality industry experience in Cleveland and in the Kings Canyon National Park in California. He has also guided student groups through Europe for more than 20 years. He has been on the faculty of the School of Business, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, since 1968 and is currently Professor of Economics.