I am Jeff Rea your host for Economic Outlook.

Thanks for joining us.

As we explore the trends, the people and the ideas shaping the region's economy.

As the weather warms up and people are head outdoors, we're exploring the places and experiences that make our region a destination.

In today's episode, we're talking regional tourism how communities drawing visitors support local businesses and turn natural beauty into economic opportunity.

That conversation is coming up next.

Tourism is more than just fun and games.

It's big business across northern Indiana.

Destination marketing organizations play a vital role in supporting local economies by attracting visitors, generating revenue, and supporting small businesses.

Whether it's a family vacation, a festival weekend or a nature filled escape, the experiences created here fuel everything from hotels and restaurants to retail and recreation.

Today, we're exploring how tourism development strategies are shaping economic growth and resilience in our communities.

Joining me for the discussion are Cori Humes, the executive director of the Kosciusko County Convention Visitors Bureau.

Sonya Nash, the executive director of the La Grange County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

And Jon Huntsman, executive director of Amish Country, Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Hope you enjoy our interviews.

We're starting our tourism talk today with Cori Humes.

Cori is the executive director of the Casa Pasco County Convention Visitors Bureau.

Cori welcome.

Thank you for having me.

if somebody isn't familiar with the Kosciusko County Convention Visitor Bureau, talk to us a little bit about what you do there.

So what we do here is we our goal is to market visitors to our county, if that's digitally, through video, through marketing.

Facebook, those types of things.

But our goal ultimately is to bring a visitor to go and find out why this place is a great place to live, work, and play.

We also operate a visitor center that is located right on US 30.

If you're traveling through Warsaw, Cori, for folks who haven't had a chance to be there, talk to us a little about some of the attractions.

What are some of the things that people come to Kosciuskoi County to see?

Well, one of the greatest attractions for us is we are the land of over 100 lakes.

So we have 100 lakes for any outdoor recreation to, experience for visitors.

And we're with this weekend being Memorial Day weekend.

It's like our unofficial start to the summer season.

So, lots of boating, lots of kayaking, lots of canoeing, fishing, all of that beaches and things will be quite, full this weekend.

But one, staple maybe a lot of our viewers today may be aware of is the Village at Winonna Lake, which is located on the Lake of Winona, and the town of Winona, So that is, one of our top destination spots.

It has roughly 17 shops, and dining experiences that you can spend a whole day in.

And it's not far from this, the campus of Grace College.

Great.

And I've been there a few times.

We were talking before we started about, some Kosciusko County connections.

And so I love those and encourage our viewers to get out and see some of those core talk a little bit about, you know, agencies like yours trying to drive tourism.

It kind of had the economic impact of that.

Talked to us about how those visitors, positively impact the community that you live in.

Tourism is a huge economic impact, not only in our county, but across Indiana.

In 2023, visitor spending to gas goes about $186.3 million.

That was just visitor spending in that year.

It also support about 2100 jobs in our area, as well as, total economic impact, about $89.9 million.

So that's a huge impact.

So if you take that, that tourism wasn't here, we didn't have those assets to be able to showcase, you know, those, taxes would then fall on, our state and local, residents.

So it's a major impact that it kind of relieves a little bit of that annual tax spend to our county.

And it just drives, a great quality of life and quality of, place to be here.

That whole live, work, play or it all starts with the visit.

talk a little bit about just sort of your tourism partners, maybe the community, some of the businesses who are the folks that help you, to drive traffic to Jasper County.

Oh, sure.

So we're so lucky to have, great partnership and great network all around the county, similar, nonprofits like myself, but we couldn't do what we do without our hoteliers.

Our, restaurants are attractions, as well as our partners in, like, our county chamber of commerce or county economic development Corporation.

We all work really closely to make sure that businesses are well attracted and well promoted for that visitor and even resident, you can be a visitor in your own destination.

If we can live in one place our whole life and maybe not realize that we've had this special place in blank, like in Mentone, we have, a 3,000 pound egg promoting egg production in Kosciusko which is one of those fun attractions.

But what's unique about it is that our goal is to always try to work closely with those partners to generate more awareness of our destination.

Yeah, Cori, talk for a second about just sort of the trend in tourism, if you will.

We kind of like I think back over the last, I don't know, five plus years, sort of the pandemic sort of stopped a lot of travel.

And so what's the the trend and causes are you seeing, those your numbers that you shared, headed in the right direction?

Yes, sir.

Yeah.

Great question.

You know, all of us during that pandemic time really, relied on our outdoor and outdoor recreation assets.

And we were lucky here in Kaskaskia to have those trails and those out outdoor type experiences.

But, yeah, so we, 2022 was what a lot of us will, especially Kosciusko called as our revenge travel year.

We saw our biggest numbers, on record in that year.

And we're still we're still, aligned with those numbers to this day.

So we're happy to be trending, high and keeping that visitor spending and that visitor awareness the same, if not increasing them.

Great.

Got good news there.

Glad to hear that.

So query talk for a second just about, differentiating yourself.

So everybody's competing for the same, visitor.

Right.

Every county wants folks to come and spend their money there and stuff.

Talk about some of the ways that and I think you sort of touched initially in your intro, but but how you helped differentiate Casey County from other visitor experiences.

That's a great question.

You know, we're what what's I feel is great about northern Indiana is that we do have some really great differences in that travel niche.

You know, we have our friends in Shipshewana with our Amish friends, you know, up at Notre Dame and our travelers for sports.

But for us especially, that sets us a little bit apart is our lake.

So, we have a number of different types of boats and, boat tours that you can experience.

One is, the Dixie stern Whaler, which is about 96 years old, located on Webster Lake in the town of North Webster.

And you can ride this boat, Memorial Day to Labor Day, in the evenings, all summer long.

And we have, many opportunities to, experience those lakes in different types of ways from boating.

But I feel like our outdoor recreation from our trails in our lakes really do set us apart, because that outdoor recreation is, pretty important to our, visitor experience.

It is.

I love your restaurants.

To so many people traveling to eat some days to.

I have to admit, I've been there to eat once or twice, so I encourage folks to come that way.

Oh, it.

Yeah.

Cori, as we wrap up our time here, help remind our viewers where they can find more information about, Kosciusko County and come in to visit.

Oh, perfect.

Yes.

You can find us online at VisitKosciuskoCounty.org, or you're welcome to give us a call at area code (574) 269-6090.

Cori, you've got some great things happening down there.

Thanks for taking a few minutes to share with us.

We hope everybody I'll get down and visit Cori in Kosciusko County.

Thanks, Cori.

Thank you Jeff.

We'll be right back.

our next guest, Sonya Nash.

Sonya is the executive director of the La Grange County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Sonya, thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

It's my pleasure to be here, Sonya.

For folks who aren't familiar with your organization, tell us a little bit about what you do at the La Grange County CVB.

Sure.

We're the destination marketing organization for La Grange County.

We're most famous for Shipshewana.

Shipshewana is the heart of Amish country, a small town that welcomes over 2.5 million visitors a year.

And so our job here at the Convention and Visitors Bureau is to talk to those visitors, help them with their travel planning, help give them ideas about places to go, reasons to visit, things to do.

So we represent the people in places that are found here in this county.

I love it, I've been there many a time.

Love what you've got going on there.

You're a little special in terms of not every county has got a destination like yours that drives so much tourism.

Let's dive a little deeper first into Shipeshewana So somebody who's never been helped them understand some of the things they might experience if they're in La Grange County and at.

Well, I tell you to me, I live actually in Granger in Saint Joseph County.

And every day that I drive into this community, there is a sense about this place.

There is a vibe when you see buggies called by horses, when you passed field after field of cows and lambs and sheep, you get a sense of place here in Shawnee that's very different from other destinations.

But really what started our growth and tourism was a very famous ship shown on a flea market.

It's every Tuesday and Wednesday, May through September, and that's what started all of the people coming to the community to buy direct from vendors, purchase items, learn about the Amish, connect with the Amish and enjoy the food.

Great.

Sunday, let's talk a little bit.

Just the economy is second.

So tourism, such an important driver, not only for La Grange County, but the counties around us, talk to us a lot about the economic impact of having, visitors come to your area.

Well, so our community and county is a very rural county.

In fact, only 44,000 people, give or take, live in La Grange County.

That's less than the town of Goshen or, the city of, South Bend.

So our community is very rural.

In fact, we have the largest number of farms in the state of Indiana.

So when you talk about visitors, visitors are bringing outside dollars into La Grange County to foster jobs, to foster products, services that cannot happen with only 44,000 people in living in our county.

So it's extremely vital, to our overall economic impact in our communities.

So, Sonya, as we're wrapping up kind of our season and we're heading into the summer, talk a little bit about just this summer and kind of what's what's on tap, special events.

Help our folks, give them a reason to come see you and La Grange County.

Oh my gosh.

So most of the excitement is happening around the Blue Gate Performing Arts Center.

We have top name artists coming into this theater that seats 1500 people.

But there are shows most weeks, every Tuesday through Saturday night.

And we're talking big name artists.

We had two sold out shows for Jay Leno.

Travis Tritt, Tracy Adkins, the BG Revue show, you name it.

Big name stars are coming here to our little town, so it's close by.

Easy for your listeners and viewers to travel for that last minute weekend getaway, or to celebrate an anniversary or birthday.

I, you know, it's.

I'm on the Blue gate, email list.

I'm amazed by the talent that they bring in to our area.

And having been over there, as you mentioned, the size and the feel is very intimate there.

I highly recommend if people haven't had a chance to go see, a concert or something over there, that's a great thing for them to do in the summer.

Sonya, let's agree, it is one of the most popular, theaters in the state of Indiana.

It's the highest rated for its size and definitely offers an a unique experience.

And as you said, almost, almost about every night, it feels like when I look, look at the calendar, and there aren't many days that, that there isn't something going on over there.

I think that's pretty exciting.

So, Sonya, let's talk just, marketing.

So as, post-pandemic, you know, tourism, travel, you know, kind of had a rough time, pandemic time, you know, how things evolve, kind of marketing strategies, things to to what kind of things are you doing to try to bring more people to see you over there?

Sure.

We were very blessed.

If you can be blessed during a Covid scenario or right after, with our small community, we're right on the Indiana Michigan line, and we had an explosion of visitation.

We were open to the public in Michigan was not so our boom in tourism took off really right after enduring, when many destinations were shut down.

But since that time, we're embracing, of course, AI technology has really exploded.

And it's no different in the travel and tourism sector as it is in the private sector.

So we're embracing those trends.

And really, people are looking for that, authentic, experience where they can meet people in their places of business by direct from the local creator that's found here in an economical way.

So we could be a last minute place where people want to go and enjoy and not spend a lot of dollars.

We're less than a half a tank of gas away, if not less.

So it's a great economical destination for a quick, fun day out.

Great, Sonya As we get to our last couple of minutes, talk a little bit about, Bones to Buggies.

We were talking offline ahead of time, sort of a unique partnership to try to market folks to come to northern Indiana.

Tell us a little bit about what that's about.

Well, we love collaborating with our neighbors.

And the folks at the South Bend Convention and Visitors Bureau are an amazing team.

So we work to create an itinerary and suggestion of an experience called Bones to Buggies.

So it's celebrating the Indiana Dinosaur Museum and all of that amazing bone structure, with our gentle, peaceful buggies and our itinerary is the best of both destinations.

And we're marketing and communicating this strategy nationwide and throughout Canada, encouraging groups, individuals to come and experience this dichotomy of experiences that really elevate and create those lasting memories.

I sort of love hearing more about it, and it's been.

And thank you for sharing a little with that.

And it's interesting when you think of, of of tourism, it's families that are coming.

It's busses that are, that people are taking trips in the summer.

There's a lot of reasons people are coming your way, to visit briefly for less and a minute or so about, just businesses, local government, kind of the partnerships and why those are so critical to your success here.

Tourist ship Joanna is operated by a town council, and they're the people who take care of our streets.

Obviously, we have a lot of Amish population, so a lot of horses and a lot of street cleaning is needed.

And they also manage and maintain the pumpkin buying trail, which connects the ship channel on a trailhead all the way through Elkhart County into Goshen.

That's a 17 mile trailhead.

And the town of Joanna maintains the La Grange County portion.

So that collaboration is extremely vital, not only for our residents, because our Amish and others use that pumpkin vine for a transportation route.

They ride bicycles all of the time, but it's also popular with our visitors.

And in fact, the Shipshewana trailhead is the highest visited trailhead on the entire 17 mile trail.

And so visitors are coming here to bike and get outdoors and explore.

And we couldn't do it without the town of Shipshewana.

Sonya, Last question where where do people find more information about La Grange County?

Oh, we'd love to share that.

VisitShipshewana.org is our website.

You can check out Hotels Book Direct See our event calendar to check all of the available events, theater or musical.

If you want a rodeo, a flea market, a swap meet, whatever you're looking for can all be found on that website.

And of course, reach out to us anytime for a free travel guide or coupon book.

We have a visitor center that's open Monday through Friday, so we're happy to help.

Great.

Sonya Nash is the executive director of the Grange County Convention of Israel.

Sonya, thanks for joining us today.

Our final interview today is with Jon Hunbserger Jon is the executive director of the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Jon, welcome.

Thank you for having me.

Jon, give us a quick high level.

Tell us what the Elkhart Convention Visitors Bureau does.

We promote and market all the experiences here in Elkhart County.

We work with all of our communities and and partners, to really highlight, socialize and promote the activities and experiences that occur here in Rock, our county.

To visitors who would like to, participate and and experience a taste in the culture that we have here.

We also know those are wonderful experiences that our residents really, truly in love and appreciate as well.

Great, Jon, for someone who hasn't been to Elkhart County.

Talk a little bit about some of the attractions.

What are some of the things that people come to see in Elkhart County?

Well, we have a number of, premier, destinations here in Elkhart County.

I couldn't go without saying that there's the theaters and the arts are a highlight of that.

So going to the Lerner, theater or going to the Goshen Theater are certainly highlights.

We understand that museums are a part of that culture that we have here as well.

So, getting getting out to the Midwest American, Museum art is certainly one of those showcase, places as well as the New York Central Railroad Museum.

Is also a wonderful place to go visit.

We have, history here and culture with the Amish.

And that's certainly a space where, people love to travel here and experience and see and taste that culture.

And we have those Amish experiences throughout, Elkhart County, certainly in the US.

And house is a place to taste that.

We also have a gym here.

Not only in Elkhart County, but in Indiana, in the Midwest and the Wellfield Botanical Garden.

It's just a delightful place, a beautiful space to see.

The the, the creation of plants, and being, cultured by and by our hands.

And so those are, those are a few of those spaces that we really enjoy.

And I couldn't I couldn't go without saying all the trails that we have throughout Elkhart County that are being stitched together.

It's a wonderful way to get around.

Elkhart County is by our trails.

So whether you're out in the natural, spaces or in the air, exploring the trails, or if you're in the spaces of theater and the arts.

Elkhart County is a wonderful place to visit.

Great.

Thanks, Jon.

You've highlighted a number, some of my favorite places to visit.

And so thanks for calling those to our attention.

We want our our viewers to come over there and visit Jon, talk for a second about just sort of the economic impact of tourism as a whole and sort of how tourism impacts the economy in Elkhart County.

Well, you know, when when people talk about tourism, they, they, they just think about the fun and the experiences about it.

But there really is that economic driver impact behind it.

In Elkhart County, we know that tourism directly benefits our community, to a not some of over $500 million a year.

And that's those visitors coming, and they're buying tickets to our experiences, or they're staying at our hotels, but they're also shopping and we're dining.

And so, as we know, those benefits impact, the salaries of our employees and such, that indirect benefit really does begin to extend another almost $300 million.

And so with the the benefit of visitors coming to our community, to, to experience our culture and to shop and such has a direct benefit to our bottom line as a community, because it's not just recirculating the dollars that we have as income, by our industry and our manufacturing and our agriculture, which is incredibly important.

The visitor is the added benefit of those dollars coming into our economy that we otherwise wouldn't have.

Jon, talk a little bit about trends and sort of what's happening or are people traveling more, visiting more?

Is it been, you know, kind of steady?

What what's the what's the trend in Elkhart County?

It's been interesting.

Is that leisure travel?

We're we're not necessarily, one of these large destinations that people fly into.

We are a drive market for the most part, here in the Midwest.

And so we know that that leisure traveler is somewhere around 30 to 35%.

What the the largest portion of growth that we've seen is actually been in youth sports.

And so whether you're coming to the aquatic center for a local, state or a national event, which we host here, we also have, rugby here in Elkhart County, which is kind of one of those things that you don't hear much about.

And you think Elkhart County events like, in fact, we have over 200 rugby events here in Elkhart County as well.

So there's there's varied reasons why people come here, but we know that there are large factors, within the leisure market.

But then also the, the youth sports and collegiate sports, which is also driving tourism here.

Great.

Jon, as we get closer to the end here, talk a little bit about the quilt garden, something that I think that Elkhart has been known for for many years.

I know you guys have been involved in that.

Tell us a little bit more about what that is.

Yeah.

The Quilt Gardens is a is a project program that we've we started 17 years ago.

We're working on our 17th year this year.

And it's, it's really, it's amazing how we've been able to pull together our history and culture in a very unique way, bringing together our nature, natural outdoors along with our culture and our Amish history into quilt patterns that are put on display in all of our communities.

So along the heritage Trail, we have 16 gardens this year.

We have three new gardens, one in, walk Rusa at Grandma's Pantry.

Two and ships.

Joanna and Weavers furniture as well as farm sit in.

And then we have one returning garden at Wellfield Botanical Garden.

After some construction that they've had.

But the, the, the quilt gardens are really a signature, program here in Elkhart County that we, we look at the last data point that we had as far as a survey, we have over 200,000 people visiting Elkhart County just for those quilt gardens.

So we know that it makes an impact.

The community really loves it.

Because they're they've demonstrated that it's completely volunteer driven.

We provide the flowers, we do the marketing, but they do all the planting, the planting, the watering and the weeding to ensure that those gardens are beautiful every year for visitors coming in.

And it's a real sense of, community pride.

It's been great to see.

And, Jon, thanks for bringing attention to that.

And if folks haven't had a chance to come see that, they should make plans to to come over and visit that.

Jon, in our last minute or so here, give kind of the the final maybe elevator pitch to our viewers why they should come visit to Elkhart County and where they can find out more information about what you're doing.

Sure.

Well, you can always visit, Elkhart County, and hear more about, visit Elkhart County, VisitElkhartCounty.com.

The reason why there's always something new just around the corner.

We what I've found, over the years, living here and growing up here, traveling around, is that Elkhart County has a little bit to offer.

Everyone.

However, we have very unique experiences that really showcase our culture and history, not just in the Amish country, but also our urban communities and centers that we have in our downtowns.

And we truly have a vibrant place that is welcoming to everyone when they come, to Elkhart County.

So I would, I would, I would challenge visitors to come explore a day or two and just be prepared to be ready to come back for another day or two, because there's there's just not enough time in the data to really, experience everything the Elkhart County has to offer.

Awesome.

Jon Hunts burger Jon, thank you so much for visiting today.

I appreciate you telling us a little bit more about Elkhart County.

We'll be sure to get over there and check things out.

that wraps up this edition of Economic Outlook.

A big thank you to Cori Humes, Sonya Nash and Jon Huntsman Burger for sharing how their work helps bring visitors dollars and energy to our region.

We encourage you to get out and experience some of the places, events and attractions they mentioned.

There's something for everyone here in our region.

Thanks for watching on PBS Michiana WNIT or listening to our podcast.

You can find all of our past episodes at WNIT.org, on YouTube and on most major podcast platforms.

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I'm Jeff Rea.

I'll see you next time.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.