Outreach expanding

The Carbon County Visitors Council (CCVC) met on February 17 via Zoom. It would be a short meeting compared to most CCVC board meetings. As it lasted exactly one hour.

After all board members were identified, the agenda and minutes from the regularly scheduled meeting January 20 were approved.

CCVC Director Leslie Jefferson went over the lodging tax collected and Carbon County had a major uptick from last month and last year. 

For the month of February, which included the latter part of January, Carbon County collected $17,099.97 in lodging tax. This is up from $5,515.64 last year. The month of January, lodging tax collected was up by $11,584.33 for county lodging properties.

The only municipality to beat last year’s figures was Medicine Bow. The town collected $153.03 versus $112.32 from last year. Rawlins was down steeply from last year collecting $12,990.17 compared to $20,352.75 the prior year. Saratoga was down from $1,942.91 last year to $1,721.49. The total for lodging tax collected was $32,705.22 versus the figure of $29,261.97 from last year.

The financials were approved and Jefferson gave a strategic initiatives update. Marketing Carbon County, the CCVC went into print advertising in Route Magazine and Madden Spring Insert. In radio, RMNN (Rocky Mountain News Network, NRG (Omaha) and WPR (Wyoming Public Radio) renewals are in progress. 

Jefferson said she would send the b-roll of the Road Trip commercial to Madden Media Digital Services to utilize in the Wyoming connected TV spot. Jefferson said there was an opportunity with Upslope Media to have a cinema ads contract for total market reach for 12 months with 2 months free plus 10 percent discount total to come in at $5400. The 10 second video will feature ‘Visit Carbon County’ in 71 screens across Wyoming in Casper, Cheyenne, Rock Springs, Laramie, Lander, and Riverton. The board approved the cinema ads with Upslope Media.

The CCVC will advertise Carbon County Visitor Journey A2D program through local media outlets and, possibly the Rawlins movie theater. The CCVC will attend the Saratoga Platte Valley Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner on March 18.  Jefferson said The-Travel-Stories final articles have been submitted and feedback is due. She said photos will be compiled and shared for story enhancements. 

The board approved a spring insert to contract with Madden Media for a half page ad in the amount of $9,687.00. The board approved a contract with Sean Dunn to create wooden name badges for CCVC staff and Board members. The board approved the CCVC employee benefit of providing all staff members with a paid Basic Health Fair blood panel. 

The board decided to have their next meeting a week early instead of it being on the third Wednesday of the month.

The next regular CCVC board meeting will be at 1 p.m. March 10, at the Carbon County Fairgrounds in Rawlins.