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Visit Dubois County reports tourism growth; targets motor-coach markets and expanded Spanish-language outreach
Summary
Visit Dubois County presented a 2023 tourism report showing near-doubling of visitor spending over a decade, a digital marketing campaign that expanded impressions and engagement, and 2025 priorities including motor-coach outreach, distribution of print visitor guides (including a new Spanish edition) and sports-event fundraising.
Whitney, representing Visit Dubois County, briefed the Dubois County Commissioners on tourism metrics, recent marketing results and 2025 priorities, including expanded Spanish-language materials, motor-coach outreach and continued promotional campaigns in partnership with the Indiana Destination Development Corporation.
Whitney reported that county visitor spending reached about $123.4 million in the most recent Rockford Analytics county report, an increase of 5.6% over the previous year and a near-90% increase over 10 years. She said tourism supports roughly 1,313 local jobs (presenter’s figure) and returns approximately 45% of visitor spending to the local economy — an amount the presenter quantified as about $55.5 million retained locally. She told commissioners that the visitor economy reduces household tax burdens and generated roughly $12.1 million in state and local tax revenue in the presenter’s figures.
On marketing, Whitney described a co-funded digital campaign with Discover Southern Indiana and the Indiana Destination Development Corporation that combined partner funds ($7,500 each from Visit Dubois County and Discover Southern Indiana plus $15,000 from IDDC) into a roughly $30,000 campaign. She said the campaign produced roughly 176 million impressions, a large increase in clicks and a drop in cost-per-click to about $0.79 — and that IDDC had boosted paid support because it liked the county-provided imagery and video assets. She reported a 147% increase in sessions to a Discover Indiana campaign landing page and large increases in page views and engagement.
Whitney said Visit Dubois County printed 60,000 English visitor guides and 5,000 Spanish guides as a new inclusion effort. She outlined distribution channels (tourist information services across the state and border markets, hotel and gas-station racks, and direct mail/lead-generation mailings to people requesting physical guides) and noted that printed guides typically have a high return on investment in tourism metrics.
Other updates included Wayfinding/“DuBois Landing” signage featuring 16 original artworks (supported by the Dubois County Community Foundation), continuation of sports-event work under a separate DC Multisport board and a $100,000 tourism capital and food-improvement grant fund administered by Visit Dubois County. Whitney listed earned media placements and awards, including a state tourism award to local partners and a top ranking for a local hotel brand.
Commissioners asked distribution and targeting questions for print guides and Whitney said distribution focuses on Indianapolis and southern Indiana markets, border markets in Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois, hotels and lead-generation mailings. She also described partnerships with a digital marketing contractor and the community foundation to stretch limited staff capacity.
Why it matters: Tourism dollars support local businesses and tax revenue. The presentation outlined measurable digital gains and concrete distribution strategies for printed outreach, plus specific investments (Spanish guides, motor-coach targeting and wayfinding) that commissioners may consider when evaluating county tourism support.
For follow-up: Commissioners requested copies of the materials and discussed scheduling budget-review sessions where tourism funding and broader county budget priorities will be reviewed.
