Economic Outlook | Tourism in Indiana

hi I'm Jeff Ray your host for economic Outlook Welcome to our program we hope you enjoy the show please make plans each week to join us as we discuss the Region's most important Economic Development initiatives with a panel of experts annually more than 81 million visitors come to explore Indiana and those visitors spend over 13.2 billion dollars in the Hoosier State we're taking a closer look at tourism in Indiana with a focus on the State's new in-indiana campaign coming up on economic Outlook thank you whether it's a visit to iconic Indiana landmarks like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway or Notre Dame Stadium or one of Indiana's 32 state parks or even some of Indiana's popular festivals wineries breweries and distilleries visitors are finding that there is more to do in Indiana the state has recently launched a new effort to grow tourism efforts in the Hoosier State and we're sitting down today to hear more about that from Elaine Beetle the secretary of the Indiana destination Development Corporation Elaine welcome back thank you Jeff I appreciate it appreciate the opportunity to kind of share our story we're thrilled to have you back we had a great conversation last time you were with us about what's happening in tourism in Indiana Lots changed since then by way of just you know reminder as we're getting started here talk to us a little bit about the Indiana destination Development Corporation and what the Secretary of that does that's a good question um actually we're a startup we're a new entity for the state of Indiana it all came about in 2017 when the legislators asked for a task force to be created to determine how other states in our our country handle tourism what the funding is and that type of thing so a recommendation was made back to the legislatures and it got approved in 2019 to actually create a quasi-government agency Indiana destination Development Corporation to replace what was in the Indiana office of Tourism development but at that same time the governor kind of expanded the mission so that it's still important to bring this visitors here and tell our story to get people to come and experience Indiana but it's also to tell our quality of life and quality of place story in order to have talent be interested in coming and working for our corporations from other places and for all the graduates that we get here from all over the country to get them a taste of Indiana as well so they might think about staying in Indiana working for our corporations and making their their their careers and and their livelihood here I love the focus and that that concept that some of those that visit may stay and and work or do businesses so I'm glad you're you're doing that so Elaine give us just a general high level you know kind of what what is the state of Tourism uh in Indiana if you will well you know tourism represents about 10 of our GDP in Indiana so about we're all in it's about 37 million something like that that that comes from tourism pre-pandemic we were around 210 000 workers in that industry we haven't quite recovered to that level now but we've made some strides we're probably about 180 185 000 at this point in time so it's an important part of our economy but I will tell you there's opportunity to even do more uh because a lot of people from all the surveys we do focus groups Etc people just don't know what Indiana has to offer if they've never been here they didn't go to school here they don't have friends or relatives here they are basically a blank slate and it's nice to know that at least it's not a negative perception it's more of a neutral perception so we've got lots of opportunity to kind of raise that to a positive perception which will bring more people here to visit and consequently expose them to the state raise that perception and make it an opportunity be that they could either stay bring a business here start a business here that they may take a job here at some point in time uh retire here whatever it might be but right now our story has been under a bushel basket and we've got to take that off and and really tell the world you know what we've got available here it's a great place I love Indiana and I think everybody else who comes here even if they didn't if they aren't born and raised Hoosiers once they're here they really love what our state has to offer right Elaine when I when I think about so what are some of the top attractions in the state that I mean where do most people come that are visiting what are some of the the things high on their list of things to see when they're here well you know I think when uh Dunes National Park came into existence it used to be a national Shoreline up there but that puts it on a lot of people's bucket list you know they want to go see all the national parks so that had a lot of visitors coming before that naming and now it's even more so I think that's one of ours the other one is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway I mean talk about an international attraction we get people from all over the world who come here to experience that race every year um and then there's there's places like um Holiday World and splashing Safari I mean they bring a million visitors in a year from outside of our state as well French Lick Resort I mean a beautiful place that's down in the hills of Indiana that people love to come to so there's quite a few places like that and having the number two or the number one Children's Museum in the country right here in in Central Indiana is another big draw so I could go on and on there's there's quite a few that people again once they know about it they want to come see it and we just got tell that story yeah so Elaine let's shift a little bit and talk about so you're you've said a couple times already that this we got to tell our tell our story and so you know we're in the north part of the the state we're in the cloud of Pure Michigan and uh they do you know a phenomenal job sort of drawing attention uh to uh Michigan attractions but but Indiana's uh kind of launched an effort to to to tell more video in a story and I I I I see it on your lapel there even too so talk a little bit about uh you know what Indiana is trying to do with the in Indiana effort oh thank you very much the well you're right about Michigan and the idea with Michigan is that if you hear Pure Michigan whether you've ever been there or not you get it you get an image in your mind of what that might look like and they started that campaign in 2005. so they've had quite a few years to kind of continue to put that out there and they've done a great job of doing that what we're trying to do is figure out how we can tell the world our story and again from all the focus groups and and research that we've done people just don't know what's in Indiana they don't give us credit for for having Notre Dame up in South Bend they don't know it's here they know the great asset but they don't know that it's in Indiana same way with Purdue same way with Lily I've been told Lily's been headquartered in New York not the case Lily's right here in Indiana so what we want to do with our in Indiana is to basically get people to recognize the assets that are here we're proud of every business here every organization every municipality and we want people to understand and be certain that they're in Indiana so we came up with the identifier in Indiana and then let everybody make up their own headline we're using more to discover as part of our tourism attraction um but you can life is better in Indiana I mean you can come up with whatever your area of Interest might be create that headline that compliments what you're already doing and there's lots of examples everywhere of people doing that I mean you could even just put Notre Dame in Indiana I mean it could be South Bend visit South Bend in Indiana it's easy to create that create it for a special event change it when you want to change it and just put it on your website so that when people start exploring they start seeing in Indiana and once they see that over and over and over we've created then a really big megaphone to let people know this is in Indiana and that will help raise the perception which is one of the first things we just have to do and to get that word out and and um you know on the other side of that we need funding to do that and so that's one of the situa the circumstances we're under now is that we don't have the funding and we've got to again share our story with the legislators to hopefully get a nice budget yeah important legislative session coming up on that so so Elaine you have been I have seen and I've seen you up in this North part you've been in every corner of the state um launching uh this and helping people understand what you're trying to accomplish with this what's been the reception as you've traveled Indiana so far about the in Indiana campaign well you know people love it I mean they say it's simple but it works uh you know we did some focus groups before we put it out there and we talked to Consumers but also some of our own destination marketing organizations and in particular those those entities said you know in the past Indiana would come out with their slogan or their tagline or whatever and it just didn't work but this they can make work because they can make it their own and so we've had positive reception from our own industry as well as everybody that we've talked to that they love the idea that they can create their own headline and and use the in Indiana so you know we have free tool kits and that's the other thing people love we actually were having a conversation with a mayor who loved it he says well how much is this going to cost me not a thing you know because all of the artwork is done all the templates are done you just have to go to visit indiana.com toolkits and download what you want to use and start creating and there's a quick start there so you just put in the headline you want and download it and you've got it and you can use it in your on your website like I said or on the back of a brochure or wherever you feel like it's appropriate we'd love to have it on the side of trucks and service vehicles that go all around the state and even outside the state just kind of saying yeah we're from Indiana and we're proud of it great but no it's been very exciting I had a chance to work closely with the tourism Bureau on that and I I know up here locally it's been well received and we'll look to integrate it in and I do encourage folks to visit the toolkit that Elaine mentioned to figure out how to integrate into their business Elaine we're going to continue our conversation just a second but I'm going to leave this studio uh real quick we're going to go out into the field George leppen yodis my co-host is out for a little local perspective on in Indiana and tourism George let me toss it to you thanks Jeff I'm an Elkhart at the Elkhart Visitor Center just off the toll road a little bit north I'm joined by John hunsberger John thanks for being with us today John the last time I was here was a completely different facility in a completely different executive director so thank you for taking the time to both introduce our viewers to yourself and also to your new Welcome Center Visitor Center which I know isn't that new but with kovid I think you opened in 2019 so many people especially from the area may not have seen it uh but thank you for being with us today tell me a little bit about your job how did it come to be that you are the executive director of the Elkhart County visit convention and visitors bureau very exciting to to be here and thank you um I've been with the CBB now for four years I came in as the Director of destination development and my predecessor Diana Lawson um already had a plan to retire at covid um actually helped that along a little bit but uh yeah she she retired then in 2020 where I took over my journey to here has been one that I was unexpected my background really is in planning and Urban Development and so we have long time had a position here as a with an urban planner on our staff and so my my my job here really came into as a urban planner well and that's funny that you say that for for folks at home that don't know an urban planner is a professional who helps communities develop and grow in an orderly manner is that fair to say yeah that's a fair statement and and here at the at the CVB your job is to create a sense of place exactly so those two actually do go even though they may not necessarily you may not think of them together they do go hand in hand they very much go hand in hand well let's talk about Elkhart County um both kind of zooming in but also on a broader scale uh you know we all know Elkhart County is the RV capital of the world it's been said we've done other episodes even this season on some of the exciting things that are happening in the RV industry and I know that's a big draw but your draw here in Elkhart County actually goes beyond just RVs tell us a little bit about why people come to visit Elkhart well the main reason that we've found that people come to Elkhart County is to enjoy and experience Amish culture and Amish history and beyond that we we have Urban centers in Elkhart County where there's arts and and call culture as well and with museums and live performances and so we we do find that there's a mix of visitors coming for various reasons and there's a lot of crossover with those visitors and we try to amplify and and tell people about that story about Amish community and culture but then also our entrepreneurs and our artists that are really building our Urban centers and our our communities well yeah that's great and when we talk about the Amish Country we'll call it Amish Country Indiana's Amish country is in and around Elkhart County it goes beyond its borders but really the heart of it the start of it is right here in Elkhart County right I mean Nappanee and you start heading east towards Shipshewana what is that what does that experience look like for some of our visitors who maybe haven't seen it what would a weekend in Amish Country look like well the weekend in Amish Country would be that you you may be able to you know stay in a hotel of course we'd always encourage that but then you were able to drive along what we call the heritage Trail this is a 90 mile audio driving tour throughout Elkhart County as well as connecting in with Shipshewana but the experience would be that you would be driving through the countryside for instance and really seeing really a pastoral view of of our community but then along the way you can hear with the audio driving tour you could hear about the history and the stories behind and about Elkhart County and then there are stops along the way so you can actually stop in to an Amish owned business and experience either their you know their products or and hear their stories and then you can continue along so it's really an immersive experience to be able to explore Elkhart County and it's very unique it's it's a one of a kind and so where do people find this audio tour you can find that here at the visitor center we also have Partners throughout and along the Heritage Trail where you can pick up the driving tour so it comes as a CD it comes as an mb3 on a flash drive you can also download it from Spotify I okay we also have a paper copy of the map all right you know it's funny because we ran out of time here but as in the final few seconds we also know that a lot has been done downtown Elkhart and that's a big deal the the Aquatic Center the hotel Elkhart the learner uh the riverfront the River Walk District um that too is is that part of the Heritage Trail is that part of that that experience yeah so that does follow right along the Heritage Trail and those Urban experiences and what we're developing in quality of place truly is an expression of our entrepreneurial Spirit but then it also is helping our residents connect with quality Place building a place that people want to then come visit so it all is coming back full circle as as we're planning for residents we're planning for tourists at the same time well thank you very much for being with us today thank you for showing us around the awesome facility Jeff back to you in the studio I can tell you I'm going to pick up an mp3 flash drive plug it in my car and go for an 90 mile drive around Elkhart and see the sights Hey Jeffrey back in the studio so George thank you so much appreciate the chance to get some local perspective there we're sitting down again with Elaine Beetle Elaine is the uh Secretary of the Indiana destination Development Corporation the lead tourism effort in the state of Elaine thanks for spending a little more time with us so and so as we're as we're going you know as I watch you know kind of what's happening in the tourism space we mentioned Pure Michigan I've seen the California commercials that have every celebrity in the world I've seen Wisconsin where they did some airplane and some other you know kind of takes on it so this you know so some states are pretty sophisticated in this effort to try to attract visitors talk a little bit about you know kind of what's happening around the country and what states are doing uh to um to try to bring visitors and then how Indiana compares to some of that right well the other states around us if we just talk about our neighboring states they have done an excellent job of bringing in um their marketing into the state of Indiana you see their commercials on TV from you know Illinois but also Ohio Tennessee Michigan um Kentucky I mean they're all you know bombarding our citizens to come and and visit their states and unfortunately many people think we're doing the same thing there but unfortunately we're not we don't have the funding to be able to do that but that's what we're working toward getting and because you need even though we're doing social media we're pushing things out unless you can put money behind that it doesn't come up on anybody's search bars you know it doesn't come up high on that list that people will be exposed to it and see it so you know part of our our issue is that we're a little bit at a disadvantage at this point in time against what other states around us are spending I mean when you think about it Michigan's has been spending you know 40 million dollars in the last several years Ohio spends about 30 35 million Kentucky 30 million and I think they got even a little bit more from arpa funds Illinois regularly spends about 73 million they added arpa funds to them and got 90 million for this this year so all of them are really outspending against our budget which is about four and a half million to run an organization and to promote uh Indiana to the world and so what we have to do is kind of educate that money money invested in this effort comes back in many many ways to Indiana and so we are doing some some small campaigns we'll be able to measure the return on investment and take that kind of information to our legislators and educate them on what other states are doing uh where we're probably hurting ourselves by not getting our story out there and then offer to show them some of the return on investment that we are getting you know for every dollar that we invest in telling Indiana's story we can get anywhere from you know two and a half three dollars back up to 18 dollars back I mean that's what some of the states around us are doing and so um again I think the legislators just haven't had that information in the past and and to be quite honest we we've dug deep to get it all and put it together and so we're we're willing and anxious to tell each of the legislatures about that and we've had some really good conversations to date with many of them uh understand the importance of do that doing this there is there is really kind of that economic impact here you know if we don't get the talent here our businesses can't survive and they will move elsewhere where the talent is and you know to your example earlier um you know people when businesses come in they want to come in and they want to see the community that they will be working with and that their people will be living in and they want it to be something that they'll enjoy and that they'll see is a nice quality of life um and so that's what we're trying to tell our story but we need the funding to be able to do that and so we're going to work hard with the legislators this next session yeah and I I'd like to think that um with this Focus especially on the talent piece you you have the unique vantage point of having been the former um head of Indiana's Economic Development efforts as well too so this Talent piece becomes such a a critical piece and and and not only attracting the talent but retaining the talent can you talk for a second just about the the retention of of that Talent as well like like oftentimes think in our own Community you know we have to sell our own people on what what all this has to offer to talk about India you know college students in Indiana and trying to retain that talent for the state that is definitely a focus of ours because Indiana always falls in the top five states for recruiting net inbound students to our colleges and universities so they're coming from all over the country and sometimes all over the world to Indiana they're here for 46 years how do we get them a taste of Indiana so they can think about staying here when they go the other numbers are we're 14th in the state and producing graduates unfortunately we're 40th in retaining graduates so we've got lots of opportunity so we're going to put all kinds of programs into place to help get those college students off campus in many cases and learning about Indiana and also connecting them to businesses for internships you know we're not creating internships but we're hoping to connect them to all the businesses and encourage our own businesses to do that as a way to find their talent and I think if we can do that we can be successful now some of them because they're from out of state may feel like they they're going to go back somewhere else to work but if we can get them open to taking their second job here then that's a victory for us as well I mean I was told the other day that that our College grads today will probably have 12 different job changes during their their careers that was not my case when I came out of college is a much lower number than that but so if we can get them open to that second or third or fourth job offer and get them back to Indiana I think we just have to get them here for a little while and they want to stay and now our own graduates obviously they're curious about what's somewhere else and uh you know we did it we did a series of videos earlier called Hoosiers by choice and you can go to our website to see those and those are the people people who came here from somewhere else and really talk about why they love Indiana heartwarming stories to have born and raised Hoosier we are now going to do a series called home again because there's an awful lot of people who left Indiana and now who've come back and really say you know I thought I'd find something there but right here is where I want to be my quality of life is better here my job opportunities are great here so we want to share some of those stories as well but it's an important message to get out because we create so much wonderful Talent we just got to keep it here yeah so so let's start we're in our last three minutes or so you've been instrumental in your leadership at the state both doing economic development now and in terms of the investment in the place the you know the quality of places the thing you know we've got to retain Talent we got to invest in these attractions that people are going to come visit talk to us just for a second about Indiana's commitment to that and some of the things you've done in recent years with regional cities and ready and how those will help that effort absolutely when I was serving as president of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation that was the time of the of the regional cities grants and I think we saw that the wonderful impact on different communities the three regions that were participating in that with the funding uh there was 42 million dollars each was matching funds to come in and I think from that experience that's when the ready grants came in and a 500 million dollar investment it's wonderful um and really it's to create that quality of place and the iedc is implementing that process and and hopefully there'll even be a second round at some point in time but it has impacted communities and the quality of life is so important there the quality of place and so what we want to do is tell that story so that's where we connect in you know iedc has been working with employers to make sure they know where their talent pipeline comes from we want to tell the story of the quality of life of this place so that that Talent will easily say I'd love to come to Indiana so it's a it's a great partnership that we have and we want to continue to do that but you know I kind of see the iddc as really just telling that story and getting the word out because we've got the the venues to do that but we just haven't been able to take advantage of it because of some funding issues right so Elena as we begin to wrap here so um get give the make the pitch the elevator pitch to somebody who's never been to Indiana who's thinking about visiting what might you tell them question and I think if I were talking to someone we talk about the quality of life obviously that many many we talk about you can buy a house here because many people who have come here from other places they buying a home was not part of what they thought they could ever do they can buy a nice house here we've got opportunities and careers I mean people also think in the tech sector no no no no Indiana is Texas sector you know biotech all kinds of Technology goes on here even AG Tech you know people think of as a farming state but it's technology we're Way Beyond just growing things we're we're really beyond that with all the technology that we've got in that area as well so there's lots of things to offer people here let alone the wonderful um parks that we've got the state parks the trails for people to run walk ride I mean they're just they're just everywhere and people need to see the beauty we've got a state that is so different from the north to the South and it's beautiful on both sides and great opportunities to really enjoy life yeah we don't have mountains we aren't we don't have oceans we do have Lake Michigan as you know up there which is just beautiful and and tourists right leaders have travel Riders have told us it's the most beautiful beach they've seen in the world so we know it's great and again we need people to experience that right here in Indiana so I think I could go on and on about just the the value you have here the the opportunities you have here and um the ability to kind of grow uh your career but also have a wonderful place to raise a family as well and you know when you think about get on the get in go come to the airport which is the best airport in in the country for our mid Market being the Indianapolis International Airport you've got another great airport up in South Bend you can fly almost anywhere to enjoy the mountains when you would like it as well as the the coast so I think we're positioned in the middle of the country is a great opportunity for people to really um be successful great awesome well she's a lean beetle she's from the Indiana destination Development Corporation Elaine thank you so much for being our guest today and helping us understand more about in Indiana good luck as that rolls out and uh we'll look forward to having you back for updates as we go I appreciate that Jeff thank you very much that's it for our show today thank you for watching on wnit or listening to our podcast to watch this episode again any of our past episodes you can find economic Outlook at wnit.org or find our podcast on most major podcast platforms like us on Facebook follow us on Twitter please join me next week as we continue to cover the Region's most exciting and important topics that affect you I'm Jeff Ray I'll see you next week [Music] this wnit local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you thank you

2022-11-24 23:34

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