Tourism conference showcases Magic Valley May 5-7

Even when low river flows dry up the mighty Shoshone Falls, Magic Valley is a fun, fun place to play, with plenty to see and lots to do.

Got that?

By Virginia S. Hutchins
Times-News writer

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/business/index.asp?StoryID=4431

For Idaho’s tourism and recreation promoters, it’s a message to be strenuously stressed this spring.

For its first time, Twin Falls will host the 2 1/2-day Idaho Governor’s Conference on Recreation and Tourism on May 5-7, bringing hundreds of professionals from the tourism industry.

"The main thing we’re going to do is show ourselves off," said Twin Falls chamber executive Kent Just, one of the locals helping the Idaho Department of Commerce organize the conference.

Participants, for instance, will walk the canyon rim, play golf, fish at Dierkes Lake, sightsee at Lake Walcott, hike the City of Rocks, see a Faulkner Planetarium show, ride the river and enjoy a Basque dinner and performance in Gooding. The Commerce Department’s preliminary conference agenda also includes more traditional classroom time — workshops on such stuff as Internet marketing and attracting coverage by travel writers.

The Twin Falls Area Chamber of Commerce invited BASE jumpers to demonstrate their sport at the Perrine Bridge that week, and some jumpers agreed, Just said. So though BASE jumping isn’t among conference activities, attendees will get to see why the bridge is a magnet for the extreme sport.

They’ll also hear about events scheduled during Twin Falls’ centennial year, which city leaders hope will draw visitors this summer.

Dennis Bowyer, Twin Falls city’s director of parks and recreation, chairs the governor’s 2004 conference. He estimates about 250 people will attend in May, including exhibitors.

"Over 200 will be from outside this area," he said.

Among them will be lots of folks involved in hospitality and tour organization, plus employees of federal, state and local recreation agencies.

A Commerce Department official pegged a higher attendance estimate.

Carl Wilgus, the department’s administrator of tourism development, told Twin Falls leaders last year to expect about 300 industry professionals for the conference — and a $75,000 boost to the area’s economy.

Conference attendees on average spend $125 per day on rooms, meals and shopping, Wilgus said. Multiply by 300 people and two days for an estimated $75,000 headed for Magic Valley in May.

"We want to get them into the shops and the restaurants," Just said. Ideally, some will come early for the conference, or stay late.

Conference activities themselves will drop some cash in Magic Valley, for catering services, boat rides and the like, Bowyer said.

Of even greater value, Wilgus said, will be attendees’ increased knowledge of the valley’s attractions. They’ll learn by doing: touring the Oregon Trail and the Snake River Canyon rim trail, bird watching, riding a tour boat to the base of Shoshone Falls, eating Dutch-oven barbecue in a scenic canyon setting.

"And they become de facto sales agents for you," Wilgus said.

It’s the first time Twin Falls bid to host the governor’s conference. A major reason state officials picked Twin Falls for 2004 was to tie into the city’s centennial celebration, Wilgus told centennial organizers at a tourism gathering last year.

But the College of Southern Idaho’s facilities, Bowyer said this week, made the site choice possible in a city short on conference facilities. The college’s gymnasium will be put into service as an exhibit hall, general and breakout sessions will meet in the Fine Arts Center, and the governor’s May 7 awards luncheon will conclude the conference in the Herrett Center’s new meeting hall.

"Without the college, this could not have happened," Bowyer said.

The Twin Falls Centennial Commission and Twin Falls Canal Co. plan a Blessing of the Water ceremony on May 8 — the Saturday following the governor’s conference — and hope some participants will stick around for it. To transform the canal company’s annual celebration of the irrigation season’s beginning into a festive outdoor party, centennial organizers moved it to later in the spring, shifted it from the bank of a canal to the park at Shoshone Falls, and contemplate inviting food vendors.