Okoboji tourism committee asks Dickinson County for $90,000 after spike in website traffic

An Okoboji tourism committee representative asked Dickinson County supervisors to consider a $90,000 hotel/motel-tax award, saying new marketing and a May website relaunch drove sharp gains in traffic.

“You have a letter of request for $90,000 again this year,” the presenter told the board as she laid out the committee’s 2024–25 packet. She said the group recorded a 68% increase in new visitors to the site, 1.3 million page views, 415,000 users and about 404,000 overnight summer trips, a 19.2% increase from the prior year.

The presenter described the committee’s measurement methods and partners. “We have a couple different subscriptions that we use. One is called Placer… it is cell-phone data that we use,” she said, and added the group uses AirDNA to report short-term rental activity. For hotels that do not report into those platforms, she said staff call weekly to collect occupancy and booking data.

Supervisors asked how campgrounds and RV parks are counted. The presenter said campgrounds that list on Airbnb/VRBO are captured by AirDNA, but sites that do not report into a reservation system are not currently included in those totals. On RV parks she said many operate under seasonal contracts that complicate reporting. On offseason results she said short-term rentals appeared up roughly 30% in September, but comparable hotel-level offseason figures were not immediately at hand.

The presenter also described a planned move to a more visible office on Lake Street in Spirit Lake and new visitor-facing features such as interactive touchscreen displays. She told the board the website is free for local businesses to use as a marketing tool and said the committee is coordinating paid and earned media statewide.

The board did not take immediate action on the request; supervisors thanked the presenters and moved on to the next agenda item.