Did You See “Hometowns” on PBS Last Month? The Show Did Not Happen by Accident

The Park County Travel Council’s Bi-Monthly Report

Of all the small towns in the U.S. that a couple of Virginia PBS TV producers could have chosen for the finale of the second season of the burgeoning hit, “Hometowns,” they chose Cody. The producers said this is their most popular episode yet. It is being aired on more than 75 percent of the PBS stations across the country with the potential to be seen by millions of viewers and travel enthusiasts. How did it happen? Because our organization showcased to them that Cody was the perfect hometown – and vacation destination – for an episode of the increasingly popular series.

There has also been over a 20% increase of overnight travelers to Park County over the last two years. How? There have been almost 100 influencers, domestic and international travel writers, tour operators, and event coordinators that visited our destination throughout the 2024 calendar year. Who made that happen?

The Park County Travel Council (PCTC) is in the business of marketing, sales, and public relations for the county. We are the dedicated effort to get both business and leisure travelers to visit our home, which is world-renowned as a classic Western vacation destination. The dollars that those travelers spend at our hotels, restaurants, retail, and attractions help make our hometown thrive. And you, voters of Cody, have told us that is precisely what you want.

By approving the lodging tax in November, the voters of Park County have ensured that PCTC can continue to help bring travelers to spend their vacation dollars right here. Although our work does not go unnoticed as some of the best in the country, everything we do is targeted at non-residents, so we have struggled to get the good word out about all the efforts coming out of our office. To help with this, we would like to start producing bimonthly reports for you to dive into. We are not only trying to be more transparent with our amazing locals but are excited to tell you about all the amazing things we do to help our county’s number one employer, economic driver, and overall industry.

Here are some more examples of what we’ve been doing in the last couple of months:

• Curated a trip for a writer from the New York Times to do a story about Cody’s ice climbing and other winter adventures. She’ll be visiting soon to experience a climb and cross-country skiing, and she will write a story about her adventures that will appear sometime in the fall, when readers are making their winter travel plans.
• Connected a Saturday Evening Post writer with dude and guest ranch owners and the Dude Ranchers Association for a story about Cody’s historic – and thriving – ranches.
• Hosted four adventure travel writers for six days of winter outdoor recreation adventures, attractions, and evolving foodie scene. Their stories about their experiences will appear in places like Outside Magazine and Gear Junkie.
• Created two new workshops after the wild success of the ones we staged last year. Watch for more details about the Wild Creator Workshop in June and the Wild Fall Photography Workshop in October.
• Produced and printed 100,000 copies of the official Cody Yellowstone Adventure Guide. We also already shipped over 70K of these to AAA offices, visitor centers, regional points of interest throughout the West, and a waiting list of individual travelers by request.
• Bolstered our visitor traffic in slower months by partnering with Expedia for an off-season campaign. It worked. The campaign resulted in 150 plane tickets, more than 800 room nights and $220,000 gross bookings.
• Accepted eight Adrian Awards for our marketing efforts. Park County Travel Council won eight awards for advertising, social media, influencer marketing, audio/digital, special events, public relations/communications and integrated marketing. These are international awards that put us up against the best in the world.
• Worked to develop an intelligent chatbot with Artificial Intelligence. This chatbot will make the user experience much more helpful while also helping us gather contact info, determine what travelers are interested in, what they are not finding, how we can help them plan their routes through the East Gate, and much more.
• Ran tv and digital ads throughout the winter months targeting our largest offseason markets in Montana, South Dakota, the front range of Colorado, and Wyoming.
• Attended a motorcoach based show in Philadelphia where we met with over 60 tour operators 1v1 developing itineraries for their travelers to experience Park County in 2025, 2026, and even as far out as 2027.

[Header image ©andyaustinphoto.com]

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