RMI conference begins to pay dividends; Bus tours from Italian group booked into area attractions, hotels and campgrounds
By Curt Nettinga

HOT SPRINGS – One year after the Rocky Mountain International tourism conference in Hot Springs, the ripple effects of having some of Europe’s top tour planning executives here is beginning to become evident.

The Europeans are coming, and coming in busloads.

Wolfgang Sareiter, the organizer of self-drive tours through his company Wolfgang Sareiter’s America Experience in Germany, replied to an e-mail from the Star and said, “We have many different tours in our program this year. Many include Rapid City, the Black Hills and have stops planned in either Hot Springs or Deadwood.”

Deadwood co-hosted the RMI conference in 2007 with Hot Springs.

Jeremiah Simunek, the manager of the Holiday Inn Express in Hot Springs confirmed that his hotel has seen the effects of the RMI conference already.

“Right now we have eight individual tour busses which have reserved rooms for 2008,” Simunek said. “The tours are booked through an Italian group in Florida called Travalco, Inc., and are called ‘The Cowboys and Indians Tour.’” Simunek said that each of the busses of European travelers should have 35-40 people and will begin showing up in about two months.

“We are working on others for the future as well,” he said.

Joe Allen of the Allen Ranch Campground also confirmed that he has tours booked at the campground.

A tour group organized by Leo Duijvestijn of The Netherlands will be camping along Fall River at the campground on July 9.

“I decided for my 2008 to include Hot Springs for making an overnight,” Duijvestijn said in an e-mail. “We will pay a visit to the excavation of the Mammoth, the Wild Horse Sanctuary and will stay for the overnight at the Allen Ranch.”

Allen said he is also in discussions with Travalco on some other tours, which “look good right now,” but are not confirmed yet.

Duijvestijn said it was beneficial to have RMI in a place like Hot Springs, because most people in Europe think of the United States as being Florida or California, as that is what they are accustomed to seeing.

“They really do not know what states like South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana have to offer,” he wrote. “Partly are the authorities in U.S.A. to blame, as they do not provide money to promote the country much better. In Holland, for instance, there is not even a Tourist Bureau.

“Therefore a meeting like RMI is so helpful to discover this part of the country,” Duijvestijn said.

“It helped me to modify my tours to South Dakota. After having seen the surroundings and the meeting for a whole day in Hot Springs I decided to plan the overnight there. I was very much impressed by everything South Dakota has to offer.”