Thanks to a grant award from Southwest Montana and the Tourism Advisory Council, promotional cards touting the plusses of the Boulder area will soon be spread from near Yellowstone National Park to the Glacier Park area. Boulder-area residents representing the Boulder Area Chamber of Commerce and the Boulder Transition Advisory Committee (BTAC) were informed Thursday that a grant proposal was approved and just under $1500 in grant funds would be available for the project.
Backers say the “rack cards” will be distributed around both national parks and along the route between. That area was selected because a survey by the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research at the University of Montana found of folks passing through the Boulder area 48 percent had visited Yellowstone and 41 percent had visited Glacier.
“Promoting Boulder in close proximity to the two National Parks will provide a fertile opportunity to attract additional visitors to the Boulder area…particularly as they travel from one National Park to the other,” said the grant application prepared by BTAC and the Chamber. Plans call for printing 20,000 rack cards that promote Boulder area attractions such as Elkhorn, the health mines, hiking, fishing, biking, the local music festival, fair and rodeo weekend and more.
Most of the cards will be distributed to display racks along the park to park corridor, with 2500 reserved for distribution through area chambers and visitor centers. Included on the card will be an entry form that can be returned to Boulder area businesses for a drawing for a cash prize. The drawing will be held in the late summer or early fall. Project organizers said the drawing will help them know a little about the people reached by the effort, aiding in future advertising programs.
As “Boulder’s first foray into an organized community marketing effort,” the project should be “a reasonable, cost-effective first step in out comprehensive community efforts to Making Boulder’s Future Bright,” said the grant application.
Questions about the project may be addressed to either the Boulder Area Chamber of Commerce, which meets next on Wednesday, May 10 at 5 p.m. at Boulder City Hall, or the BTAC, which meets on Thursday, May 4 at 8 a.m. at city hall.
