Tourism a real leader for North Dakota
In Norway the tourist organizations mainly focus on New York, California and Florida. They seem to forget the Mid West and the heavy Norwegian-American population that people from Norway would like to visit. What was new to us until we met representatives from the tourist industry in Bismarck and Minot last fall is the tremendous growth that has been in states like North Dakota. Up 655 % since 1990 is impressive, and it is a strong evidence that their investments in tourism advertising and infrastructure are really paying off. (more)
In Bismarck we were told that regional marketing is what has given much of the growth in tourism to North Dakota. They have always positioned themselves regionally, not nationally. They advertise close to home, and pull a lot of their visitors from nearby states and Canadian provinces. So if we come and visit North Dakota from Norway, we might meet a lot of people from other Norway-heavy states too.
Tourism bucked the trends last year in lodging, airline boardings and attraction attendance, all of which showed measurable declines nationally and regionally. In North Dakota all these indicators increased.
The population of North Dakota is only about 650.000. When we know that out of state tourism alone spent $3.96 billion in North Dakota last year, we know that tourism is an important industry. It ranges second behind agriculture in the
contribution to the state.
North Dakota has an aggressive economic development effort, which is expanding and diversifying the economy. In Norway we know that American tourists are spending more money than most tourists from European countries. However, some tourist organizations seem to think that these "spending" Americans do not come from the Mid West, but from more "wealthy" states like New York and California. We are no longer so sure about that, in the Mid West they have good crops, some have oil and gas, they have a growing tourist industry and low unemployment figures. Should we ask some of our friends there to come and visit us in Telemark, and to see what we can offer ? Tell them that places like our coast-line, Morgedal and Rjukan are must-see travel destinations ?