Here they come…Will summer 2008 be a record-breaking year?

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

By PJH Staff

Jackson Hole, Wyoming - William Lin, originally of Malaysia, took refuge from the heavy rains on Memorial Day by wandering along the covered sidewalks on and just off of Jackson’s Town Square.

Lin, who now lives in California and had stopped briefly in Jackson en route to Yellowstone with friends and family, was identifiable as a tourist partly because of the large-lens digital camera hanging around his neck and a new baseball cap with the cowboy-on-bucking-bronco silhouette - an unmistakable symbol for both Jackson Hole and Wyoming.

While many of the visitors to Jackson Hole delight in what to them feels like an exotically rustic town center that offers the taste of a romanticized era of America’s wild frontier days, Lin, deterred by the rain from getting up close to the elk antler arches, was relegated instead to “wasting time” along the downtown retail shop windows.

Still, he enjoyed it, he said.

“It’s interesting,” Lin said, “It feels like something old.”

With the dollar steadily losing ground to many foreign currencies, some expect to see more international tourists visiting Jackson Hole this summer than ever before. What’s more, Jackson Hole, in a tourism partnership with the state, is increasingly reaching out to international travel markets - using trade journals, travel journalists and international public relations representatives to feed interest into Jackson Hole, the national parks and the region as a whole.

“Our foreign market is going to be great this year,” said Heather Falk, events and marketing manager with the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce.

Falk said the valley is promoted in “Discover America,” an international travel trade journal that circulates about 1.2 million copies in 18 countries worldwide and has a growing presence online. In addition to an English language edition, “Discover America” is translated into German, Italian, French and Spanish, and will begin breaking into the Chinese market next year, Falk said.

“The Chinese and Japanese are big for us because they have a love affair with the West,” she said.

It is tough to gauge exactly how many visitors come through Teton County but, as one of the main gateway communities into Yellowstone National Park, park officials estimate about 2.6 million visitors pass through the park’s south entrance annually, and those visitors have to go through Jackson.

“At the very least they’re passing through, so they have an impact,” said Brian Grubb, a former town planner.

And more tourists from both Europe and Asia are looking to travel within the United States, due to favorable exchange rates and an increasing amount of exposure internationally.

“We have a strong network almost around the entire world,” said Rita Greene Bellardo, manager of travel trade marketing for the Wyoming Business Council.
Next week, Green Bellardo and other Wyoming tourism representatives will attend the nation’s largest tourism tradeshow in Las Vegas, hoping to capture the imaginations of travel agents and journalists from around the world.

“We have appointments with travel professionals who then go home and include our destination - Wyoming as a whole - into their brochures,” she said. “An operator from, say, Tokyo will return home and put together a tourism product.”

A Japanese representative working with the Wyoming Business Council has even developed an interactive, live-action computer game that incorporates Wyoming and Jackson Hole as a destination, Greene Bellardo said.

With the British pound nearly double the value of the dollar and the Euro worth more than one-and-a-half times and rising, Jackson Hole and the Rocky Mountains have become to some European travelers a destination more appealing than the Alps.

Ray Bishop, executive director of the Jackson Hole airport, said 11 percent of all inbound passengers originate in London, though that does not account for points of origin if passengers change airlines there.

“Europe as a region is still our biggest international market,” said Rick Hoeninghausen, the director of sales and marketing for Yellowstone at Xanterra Parks and Resorts.

Hoeninghausen said Yellowstone saw about 3.1 million visitors last year and a summer tourism forecast projects visitors this year would increase a few percentage points.

Though fuel prices are rising, with some predicting $4.50 per gallon by late summer,Hoeninghausen said that historically, gas prices have not had a significant impact on the number of visitors.

“The challenge, as I understand it now, is limited airline seating,” Hoeninghausen said.

While last year was a record-breaking number for overnight visitations, and this year seems poised to see more, Hoeninghausen would not predict a new record for volume.

“It should be a good year for Jackson Hole,” he said.

- Ben Cannon

Travelers, tourists, and the fine line between bro’ and faux

Jackson’s summertime visitors come from every corner of the globe to ask questions, get pampered, take photographs and contribute to the local economy.

The amount of “love” they give to their local servers, bellboys, and guides have a major impact on those workers’ livelihoods. There is no simple formula for scoring a big tip, just like there is no one formula for giving one, but Kate Reid, local burrito slinger, boiled the complex give-and-take of our economy down to a few precious words.

“If you want the bling, you’ve gotta pucker up,” she said.
Though locals might agree with that statement, several tourists said that flowery behavior staged for a big tip is offensive.
Penny and Dylan Murphy, from Stafford, England, said that chatty service can sometimes be “a bit much if we’re in for a quick drink,” even though they usually like the local flavor shared by their servers. Most tourists interviewed agreed that if they tip above 15 percent, it was simple human contact and genuine engagement that led them to do so.

Most servers, it seems, already know that.
Seamus McKinney, a server at Burke’s Chophouse, said “the days you’re in a good mood, you make more money, even if it’s less busy,” because sharing personal color and taking genuine interest in a guest are what really make people tip.
It is not always so easy to be in a good mood, but many servers interviewed agreed that a certain type of customer really makes you want to go above and beyond good service.

Reid’s no-bull approach to service does not have much patience for the “stupid” questions that make her wonder “did you leave your brain in Ohio?” but she said some visitors, often younger ones, are a treat to serve.

“They’re nice, they’re polite, they’re engaging, they’re not like ‘service me!’” she said.

Annessa Melnick, a server and bartender at Wort Hotel’s Silver Dollar Bar, expanded on this idea with a profound discernment.
“There are tourists, and there are travelers. Travelers have respect for where they are, tourists just …” she searched for words. “Engulfs,” no, “tramples,” no, “destroys,” no … but she couldn’t find the right description. Finally she blurted, “They’re spoiled. They are unappreciative of the fact that we’re people that are working, and that this is our life. We’re not just robots they can demand something from.”

Melnick said that all people will get the same timely service, but as a server, “you care about hospitality and bringing [the customer] into your establishment, into your part-time home, and you want them to be comfortable.”

She said she wonders how tourists forget that “you don’t just go into someone’s house and stomp with muddy shoes and throw off the balance of the place.”

But a good traveler can make her day, and they are treated with special tidbits of information, because they are open to hearing them.

After interviewing Melnick, I reviewed my notes from interviews and found, to my surprise, that each interviewee fit in with Melnick’s description of a “traveler.” Sure, I approached two standoffish, older Asian women who scurried off like frightened hens, but after that I picked easier targets who seemed like they had the time to talk.

“We try to fit in wherever we are,” and “get a bit of local flavor,” the Murphys told me.
“I like to engage [servers], it’s part of my experience,” Don Jones from Yakima, Wash., said.

“They can screw my order up as long as they are friendly,” Leanne Belk, also of Yakima, told me.

And to top it off, Tony Masso, an executive staying at the Amangani, went so far out of his way to help me with my story that we met at Staples (his third try) so I could get the accompanying photo off his camera.

I met Masso on the town square after a shootout, where he stood front and center, in a black cowboy hat, cowboy boots, jeans and a chic red pullover with a Sherriff’s badge attached to it.
Although he might sound stiff for staying at the posh Amangani, Masso said that what he loves about Jackson is that every shopkeeper, cashier, server and citizen in Jackson leads an adventurous lifestyle, and their presence exudes their passion for the “spirited activities” that brought them here.

“For me, Jackson Hole and the outdoor life are synonymous,” he said.

When asked about his tipping habits, and how he rewards service, he replied “When [servers] are interested in the life that they lead and can share it with their customers, it makes us more at ease staying in Jackson and tipping generously.”

Masso, the chief executive officer of a marketing and public relations firm, said he plans to bring 40 of his company’s leaders from across the country this summer to show them a brand of excitement not found in Miami, Chicago, New York or whatever city they would usually meet in.

The zeal with which he watched the shootout unfold was priceless. I can only imagine him listening to how his server climbed the Grand without ropes, or skied Central Couloir in a foot of powder.
Although timely service and a smile are expected anywhere you go, the brand of adventure that really markets Jackson is one held naturally by its residents.

If you can share that, and still be appropriate, you might find not only a better mood, but also a sweet, unexpected cash affirmation.

- Henry Sweets

Photo by Sam Fitz: Michelle Gonzales and Judith DeGuzman of the Philippines.

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Here they come…Will summer 2008 be a record-breaking year? | Planet JH News Article: Cover Stories

Reader Comments
The Jackson Hole area is great and I hope the foreign travel works for summer 2008. We booked a trip to JH that would have had started May 28th. The airlines cancelled our flight and the flights there after. We changed our trip to the Bozeman area as we didn't know if we could actually get a return flight out of JH if we ever got there in the first place. Too much stress for a vacation. We'll miss JH but realized we were ready for a change. I wish you all luck and we'll miss you. We cannot afford the time or money to chance another trip to JH. It's off the list but we have wonderful memories. American Citizen
That is sad. Come back some other time! We'll always be here. jh
Bigger . . more . . bigger . . more . . When will our "growth" mentality ever change to a "sustainable" one? Downsizer
Downsizer, I have an idea how you can contribute to the downsized sustainability you speak of. Get out of my state! JH needs a skyscraper

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Here they come…Will summer 2008 be a record-breaking year?

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Reader Comments