Q&A

With Visit Fort Dodge

We also added a digital calendar widget that monitors web crawlers to find special events and entertainment options within Webster County. These events are populated to a calendar on DodgeTheOrdinary.com which we are able to monitor with much less time invested and greater coverage of local events.

Visit Fort Dodge is working hard to promote our community, local businesses, and entertainment opportunities. So, on DodgeTheOrdinary.com we want our attractions, hotels, and businesses to be represented strongly. Businesses may have a website or Facebook page but there is rarely consistency between businesses. We wanted business representation to be more than a listing with a simple website link. We developed a profile to showcase each business which not only provides an online link but also contains detailed information and photos helping to promote and bring business to Fort Dodge.

We know that visitors want to connect with the communities they visit. Many want to go to locally owned and operating restaurants, stores, and attractions. They want to get the “flavor” of the community and its people. Adding a historical perspective of the community was an important aspect of building the story of Fort Dodge, and creating a base of historical knowledge about our city on the website helps people to get at least a small feeling of who we were as a community and who we are now.

Visit Fort Dodge is here for visitors and tourism, but we also try to recruit events and help travelers when things don’t go as planned. To address these goals, we added a tab with an electronic Webster County Destination Guide as well as a Meetings and Convention Guide which also covers services VFD can provide to special events being hosted here. We also added information to our pages about services travelers could need, such as electric car charging stations, hospitals, banks, veterinarians, pharmacies, and car repair locations.

Tourism marketing can also help with workforce recruitment and DodgeTheOrdinary.com was tailored to help newcomers or new residents become acclimated to the community. We have areas that showcase housing, medical services, faith groups, service clubs, sports and fitness, and volunteer opportunities. Lastly, we provide information on the hospitality workforce with tools and training that will encourage workers into these viable careers. In the end, we are also striving to be a central collection hub for Fort Dodge content and information.

YOU’VE RECENTLY REBRANDED AS VISIT FORT DODGE. WHAT GUIDED THAT DECISION AND WHAT WAS THE PROCESS LIKE?

Historically, many people (local and visitor alike) didn’t know what a convention and visitor bureau was. We had trouble gathering event information, groups did not notify us when coming to the community, and our residents didn’t know what we did. We knew educating our residents and visitors would be a longterm effort.

In March of 2022, Josh Schamberger from Think Iowa City came to town and analyzed the board, partner organizations, and resident surveys to discover the tourism themes our community felt were important to pursue. After a 5-hour session with our board, we put together a volunteer committee to meet and discuss Josh’s recommendation, and where they could see our organization moving the tourism industry forward in the region. The committee studied other strategic plans and other tourism communities’ efforts. They talked over many ideas and one of their first recommendations was to simplify our name to describe what we wanted potential visitors to do. The name Visit Fort Dodge rose to the top as an active term and was ultimately selected as our new name, as it clearly stated what we are trying to accomplish: we are working to get people outside the area to come and visit.

WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU’D LIKE PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT THE TOURISM INDUSTRY AND HOW IT RELATES TO FORT DODGE?

Fort Dodge has the potential to bring leisure travelers to the area, especially with the quality and variety of outdoor trail systems located in the region. We focus on the niche markets of off-highway vehicle trails, water trails, mountain biking, equestrian trails, fishing, snowmobiling, and hard surface biking, along with quality parks. In addition, we have vibrant arts, cultural, historical, and entertainment options. Combine all of these and we have a great opportunity to gain market share in the visitor industry. This increase in the leisure market will help to fuel more successful bids to host meetings and conventions as organizers want to host events where their people want to visit. It also helps recruit more teams to local tournaments. In the sports tourism market, many families make trips to tournaments as a mini vacation opportunity. The stronger our leisure draw, the more success we will see in recruiting events.