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Opportunities for tourism development were the focus of this year’s conference, held at Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical in Winona. About 80 people attended the event held by the alliance, a regional leadership group that works to boost economic growth by fostering collaboration in western Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota and northeast Iowa.
“We can create together what we can’t accomplish apart,” said Kelli Trumble, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism. “And that is what I call an experience portfolio.
“In my estimation, there is no way to increase visibility while managing costs without true collaborative regional alliances like this one,” Trumble said. She added, “When a tourism invitation is delivered as one loud and resounding voice, rather than a menagerie of individual fragmented voices, it’s bound to influence more people” and draw them to visit.
“We have to realize that what benefits the whole benefits the individual involved as well,” said Dave Vogel, southern region manager for Explore Minnesota Tourism, that state’s tourism promotion office.
Vogel also said he sees tourism opportunities in Wisconsin and Minnesota such as wildlife watching,
guided nature photography trips and packages, trips on the Mississippi River in voyageur canoes with costumed guides, local museum packages and industry tour packages.
Four other speakers discussed four tourism success stories — the Great River Shakespeare Festival that marked its fourth year in Winona, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum that opened in in August 2006 in Winona, the Onalaska Welcome and Tourism Center that will be built in the next few years with the help of National Scenic Byways Program funds, and the byways program itself.
“The 7 Rivers Region clearly has a lot to offer for residents as well as for tourists,” said alliance President Rusty Cunningham, who also is publisher of the Winona Daily News and the La Crosse Tribune.
Cunningham also discussed other examples of regional collaboration in the past year. For example, a new group of representatives from food processing businesses in the region met this week, while representatives of Winona-area composites companies continue to meet quarterly, as do representatives of equipment, machinery and metal manufacturers, who have banded together in the new region’s Equipment and Metal Manufacturing Association.
Health-care officials in Winona and La Crosse have met in the past few months to discuss common issues and collaboration ideas, Cunningham said. And clinical research scientists and economic development officials in the region also are talking about collaboration.
Cunningham also noted three inventors and entrepreneurs clubs have formed in the region with the help of Terry Whipple of Juneau County and Sue Noble of Vernon County in Wisconsin.
Health-care officials in Winona and La Crosse have met in the past few months to discuss common issues and collaboration ideas, Cunningham said. And clinical research scientists and economic development officials in the region also are talking about collaboration.
Cunningham also noted three inventors and entrepreneurs clubs have formed in the region with the help of Terry Whipple of Juneau County and Sue Noble of Vernon County in Wisconsin.
Steve Cahalan is a reporter at the La Crosse Tribune.
