Climbing into a cattle water tank and floating down a river may seem an odd way to spend an afternoon, but in Nebraska “tanking” is a summer pastime.
The tanks, usually metal or plastic and about 8 feet in diameter, provide plenty of room for picnic tables, coolers and entire families.
Now they may include something else: tourists.
Nebraska’s Tourism Commission is pitching tanking as just one reason for people to add the state to their vacation list. The quirkiness goes hand in hand with the state’s tourism slogan: “Nebraska. Honestly, it’s not for everyone.”
While Illinois has Chicago and Missouri the St. Louis Arch, other Midwestern states without obvious destinations – such as Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas – have to work a little harder for tourism dollars.
For example, while the off-beat campaign helped Nebraska boost its pre-pandemic 2019 traveler spending to $3.5 billion, it pales in comparison to Illinois’ 2019 figure of $43.1 billion or Missouri’s $17.7 billion.
Having room to grow isn’t necessarily a problem, according to Dipra Jha, a hospitality business management professor at Washington State University. He said it’s a chance for tourism directors to get more creative with how they draw in visitors.
“These states are true tourism underdogs,” Jha said. “They’re less discovered, so there’s a sense of mystery about them. There’s an opportunity there to find something unique and build a reputation.”
Nebraska tourism director John Ricks said states should lean on eccentricity and unexpected treasures to counteract attitudes of what there is to do in the heartland.
He has his work cut out for him – when Ricks surveyed folks on what they thought of Nebraska, he said it got a bit rude.
“They were almost like knee-jerk responses,” he said. “‘No fun, flat and boring landscape, nothing to do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.’”
Iowa and Kansas combat similar beliefs. These states have to go beyond the stock images of skylines, friends laughing in bars and trekking up hiking trails and appeal to travelers who want to discover and explore new places.
“We're just trying to rise above the level of sameness that a lot of tourism spots are, they all start to kind of look the same,” Iowa Tourism’s communications manager Jessica O’Riley said. “So we really wanted to find a way to break through that clutter.”
Iowa advertises its showy state fair, which boasts things like the famous butter cow sculpture, and the Field of Dreams, the site of the movie and more recently, a couple of Major League Baseball games. The state also highlights the biking paths that host RAGBRAI, the annual eight-day bike ride/party across Iowa.
Kansas promotes working ranches that moonlight as bed and breakfasts and its endless sunflower fields. And don’t forget the brisket, said Kansas tourism director Bridgette Jobe.
“Our barbecue stands up to any other barbecue anywhere,” she said. “Everybody has their favorite place and we will fight for that. And I love that, it’s one of those things that makes Kansas very special.”
Those types of perks give people a reason to look past their perceptions and try out the Midwest, Ricks said.
“You have to give people a really good reason why your state is different and intriguing,” he said. “Tell them that part, don’t tell them you got good restaurants and breweries, because those are things everybody has. Give them the unique reason why they should try out Nebraska.”
Source: nebraskapublicmedia.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-jimfeng
Categories: Nebraska, Rural Lifestyle