Even though the weather doesn’t seem to know it yet, fall has officially arrived in Wyoming! The summer flew by for RMI, with nonstop vacations, work trips, professional innovations and, of course, the Daddy of ’em all, Cheyenne Frontier Days! Read on to hear about how RMI staffers spent their summer and what’s coming up for the team. | |
CLIENT UPDATES & PARTNERSHIPS | | |
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RMI client Visit Idaho welcomed Natalie Jushinski as its tourism manager in July. Mathias and Kim traveled to Boise in August to meet with Natalie and the team to welcome her on board, introduce the international programs Idaho participates in, and discuss opportunities for further growth and development. |
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A new era at IRU, the flagship event for the Great American West, has arrived! We are happy to share that RMI will be introducing a state-of-the-art event-management platform for the 2025 event, resulting in an improved registration experience for all attendees. If you have ever attended IRU, you know that we are big on personal touch, but we also major in innovation and technology. Planning is shaping up and the South Dakota team is not holding back to make this event epic. Early-bird registration opens today, October 1, and runs through November 3. To save and secure your spot, visit InternationalRoundup.com. See you in Rapid City, South Dakota! |
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Visit Idaho (Idaho Tourism) serves to inspire travelers to visit and experience Idaho’s diverse, unique beauty, Western culture and history, and outdoor adventure opportunities through engaging, helpful tips, information and resources. Tourism is Idaho’s third-largest industry, and Idaho Tourism is committed to growing Idaho’s economy through targeted, impactful promotions.
In addition to its domestic marketing efforts, Visit Idaho is also one state within a four-state international marketing cooperative program better known as the Great American West. Comprised of the states of Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, the Great American West works to bring incremental international tourism visitation to the entire region.
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RECENT MARKETING INITIATIVES | | |
Visit Idaho's “Travel With Care” initiative encourages residents and travelers to recreate responsibly when traveling to and through the Gem State. The ongoing initiative provides guidelines for ways we can all preserve the beauty and kindness that Idaho is known for with three core pillars that provide key guidelines for residents and visitors to consider: Care for Idaho, Care for Yourself and Care for Others. | | |
DID YOU KNOW: Idaho Edition | | |
- Idaho is home to five federally recognized Native American tribes: The Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai, Nez Perce, Shoshone-Bannock and Shoshone-Paiute.
- North America’s longest gondola ride can be found at Silver Mountain Resort in Kellogg.
- Wine is Idaho’s fastest growing agricultural industry with three AVAs and more than 65 wineries.
- Idaho ranks 11th in breweries per capita with over 80 statewide, and more in development. The state is the largest producer of barley and the second largest producer of hops in the U.S.
- Idaho is home to more miles of whitewater than anywhere else in the continental U.S., making it a paddlers’ paradise.
- The Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness is one of the largest wilderness areas in the Lower 48, second only to Death Valley in California.
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IDAHO'S GREAT AMERICAN WEST PARTNERS | | |
August means new data! International travel trade reporting was released with the 2024 RMI TRIP Report™ for dozens of clients. This industry-leading reporting showcases major tourism trade performance indicators that help destinations understand how their tourism products are being sold by international trade. With this data, tourism destinations are easily able to identify travel trade selling its itineraries; compare markets by travel category; conduct advanced reporting for each state, city and property sold internationally; pinpoint opportunities for itinerary improvement, overnight add-ons and accommodation upgrades; increase productivity of meetings with international trade; determine B2B ROI; improve marketing success; engage region stakeholders on the importance of international visitation to their destination; and continue to welcome international visitors. Contact us today so we can show you why you need the 2025 RMI TRIP Report™! | | |
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Ashlie and her family traveled to Florida this summer, and aside from lots of swimming and sightseeing, a major highlight of the trip was getting to meet up with Elvira for lunch. The food was delicious, and the company was even better. If you are ever in the Ft. Lauderdale area, a stop at Shooters Waterfront is highly recommended. To add a little more excitement, you can take the water taxi along the Intracoastal Waterway and they will drop you right off at the dock to Shooters! | | |
For the first time, Mathias attended the Arizona Governor's Conference on Tourism in Paradise Valley, Arizona, at the end of August. Among many great keynote speakers, breakout sessions and data and trends shared, Mathias was able to meet and learn more about "Vibrant Arizona" as the state unveiled its new brand highlighting its diversity and exciting culture. | |
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Lori traveled to the Twin Cities for the Explore Minnesota International and Group Market Development Meeting on September 18. Explore Minnesota provided an overview of results from FY24 international activities and outlined its FY25 strategy. It was a great opportunity to connect with Explore Minnesota staff and partners, and gave Lori a chance to take in some of the highlights in and around Minneapolis and Saint Paul. RMI is proud to continue to help Minnesota expand their brand internationally and looks forward to another great year promoting the Star of the North! | |
Mathias attended the Colorado Governor's Conference on Tourism in Mt. Crested Butte, Colorado, September 24-27. It was a great conference with incredible insights, discussions, inspirational advice and thoughtful content shared. He was grateful to be a breakout session speaker sharing Colorado international tourism data and how it impacts destination marketing strategy. Topping the trip off was the drive home at the perfect time to become a professional "leaf peeper" with all of the changing colors of fall. Thank you to the Colorado Tourism Office and the many partners who participated and were involved in planning. See you next year! | |
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Upcoming:
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Alyssa and Mathias will make the short 45-minute trip over the mountains to Laramie for Wyoming Fall Summit October 16-17. We are looking forward to seeing all of our fellow Wyomingites!
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Kim will be attending ICORT in Garden City, Idaho, October 21-23 – be sure to say hi or email her ahead of time if you'll be there!
- Alyssa, Kim and the Great American West states (Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming) will travel to Nice and Paris, France, and London for an international GAW sales mission December 7-14.
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With IRU 2025 taking place in Rapid City, South Dakota, from May 6-9, 2025, Events Manager Elvira Amankwa is preparing to head out West to meet with representatives of the host community and the host state for a site inspection at The Ramkota Hotel, the host hotel. Who says site inspections are no fun?!
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RMI was a proud sponsor of the Cheyenne LEADS Annual Golf Tournament. It was a perfect day for golfing with great people for a good cause! | |
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A new National Park Service report shows that 4.5 million visitors to Yellowstone National Park in 2023 spent $623 million in communities near the park. That spending supported 8,560 jobs in the area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $828 million.
Minnesota nice is more than a myth! Happiest City in the United States and Friendliest State in the Union – Minneapolis and Minnesota both make the cut. Congratulations to our client Explore Minnesota. We’re honored to be working with you to help you share travel inspiration with five European markets to increase visitation to your happy and friendly place.
Did you see it? Our headquarters of Cheyenne is the best city to live in Wyoming and #43 on the 50 Best Places To Live For Families for the second year! We are some happy Wyomingites at RMI!
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STAFF UPDATES & ANNOUNCEMENTS | | |
Alyssa was promoted to Market Manager & PR Specialist! She will be keeping her social media guru and PR wizard status but gaining new responsibilities for the Great American West Cooperative Program. In her new role, she will now be managing two international markets (France and Italy) to help track and support the goals of the GAW program. | |
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Ashlie was promoted to Business Manager! She will still be one of the first faces you see if you stop by the RMI office handling various office management duties. On top of those duties, she will be providing additional IRU support by helping with pre- and post-fam management and will be assisting more with the comings and going for RMI as it relates to the accounting side of the business. She's also excited to coordinate and monitor sponsorship opportunities within the local Cheyenne community. | | |
Elvira is currently working on the renewal of her CMP license. The CMP certification is an internationally recognized credential that demonstrates expertise in the meetings, conventions and exhibition industry. We at RMI are thrilled to make this specialized knowledge available to our clients to help them meet business objectives in their meetings and events programs with a badge of excellence. | |
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After taking time to recalibrate with leadership meetings to set the course of RMI's future, we gathered together as a team to relax and enjoy some BBQ and outdoors with family. It was a fantastic way to kick of the summer. |
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The "Daddy of 'em All" of Cheyenne Frontier Days is the hometown celebration of the West that happens at the end of July every year. We celebrate hard at RMI, enjoying the week's festivities with parades, pancake breakfasts, rodeo and nights shows. We even closed our office (along with seemingly the entire town) for Cheyenne Day to enjoy the biggest event of the summer. |
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Missed the last post? Check out Lori’s blog on using AI to fill in the gaps.
Looking ahead: The next installment of our Artificial Intelligence Series! Next up: our director of creative development, Nicole Lebsack!
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RMI
1720 Carey Ave. #600
Cheyenne, WY 82001
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