Destination: my favorite things

Recently a group of tourism and visitor minded business folks gathered to chat about the future of that industry for our community and region.

One term that seemed to ring true around the table was creating a "destination community" mentality for Marshall and SW Minnesota. The consensus was to create an attitude that finds ways to bring visitors to our community. They could be family members from afar, tourists passing through, student groups, or businesspeople gathering in our community.

How can we make this community and our region a "Destination?" Some will argue that it begins in our own back yard. How often have you heard (or thought) "why would anyone want to come here?" Those types of self deprecating thoughts are just what we don't want. We need to find ways to celebrate what we do have and to make certain that visitors in our community have a quality experience.

Two items related to this. A group of students at SMSU, the SIFE program, will soon be offering a "secret shopper" effort to measure and assess customer service at local businesses. If you or your business would like to take part in this July program, please contact me at the chamber office for details. Do we put our best foot forward for all of our customers? Do our front line staff make the best first impression?

This is critically important for everyone. In the area of economic development, we've all heard the horror stories of a corporate expansion team checking out a community. The "suits" are meeting with community development officials who have rolled out the red carpet for the out of town business officials. While the bigwigs are out touring the community, the VP for expansion and development, who has served "incognito" as the driver for the group, is off talking to the waitress at the local restaurant, or clerk in the hardware store asking them about the community and getting a message completely contrary to the local community development officials. The point being, is that it is every one's responsibility to help sell our community.

The other component is identifying our assets. Back to the group who recently met to address these issues, we challenged each other to come up with a list of our favorite things about our community and region. As someone who has lived here less than 3 months, here are my top five:

1. The 5th hole at the Marshall Golf Club
2. Riding my bicycle on County Road 7 to see the wind turbines
3. An Ahi Tuna sandwich at The Bistro
4. A music performance at the Schwan's Performing Arts Center
5. A community band concert at Liberty Park

The challenge is to encourage each and every one of us to come up with our top 5 or 10 list to share with visitors and friends.

Those are my thoughts. What are yours?