Visitor numbers down 28 percent, official says
August 19, 2011 at 2:13 am in The Jamestown Sun
The number of visitors to the Buffalo City is down this year compared to last year, but tourism officials still aren’t frowning.
“The numbers of people visiting is down but it’s not drastic, and when I visit with people across the state everyone is experiencing the same thing,” said Nina Sneider, executive director of the Buffalo City Tourism Foundation.
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The biggest problem is there is nothing to see in Jamestown, and if you do stop to look, there is no reason to ever stop again. Jamestown has to be one of the most boring towns I’ve ever been in, and face it, how much mileage can you get out of a concrete buffalo.
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You’re right on the money Fred. Jamestown definitely isn’t a destination town. It’s basically a spot on I-94 for motorists to fill gas and grab a bite to eat.
I think the only reason numbers were up last year is due to the buffalo being ranked the third best roadside attraction in the US by Reader’s Digest. It was only beaten by a 40 ft covered wagon and a 12 ft ball of twine. I doubt people go out of there way to see any of those but they might stop by if in the area.
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Hey Jamestown, how about this: $360 million project, 371 hospital beds and they expect trauma patients from hundreds of miles away. Notice they aren’t calling it “Regional”.
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/331111/
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Yeah, I’d definitely come to Jamestown to see a hospital (sarcasm). Have you ever even been a tourist before? If that’s what turns you on, Jamestown has plenty of old wood piles and back alley dumpsters that I can show you.
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I wasn’t implying that the hospital would be a tourist attraction. I was pointing out how Jamestown always tries to go over the top with everything such as naming a small, 25 bed hospital a “Regional Medical Center”.
Fargo, by comparison is claiming such a distinction with a 371 bed facility.
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Don’t be too hard on Jamestown. It really is a beautiful city. What do you expect? Every town, big and small to come up with some kind of attraction? To what end? There is a trade off with respect to quality of life and the size of a municipality and the ability to draw tourism. It’s a statistic to ponder, think about and try to come up with some ideas to promote the city. But don’t run the city down with negative comments.
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I’m simply saying Jamestown should quit trying to promote itself as something it will never be, and that is the growing metropolis it craves.
You people have done just about everything from trying to steal the state capital from Bismarck in the 1930′s to declaring a 25 bed hospital to be a rival to the Mayo Clinic or Johns Hopkins, to running ads on the radio literally begging people to spend 5% more money in Jamestown so the stores don’t go broke.
If Jamestown just came out and stopped putting the spin on everything that happens here, they wouldn’t look quite so foolish.
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We can’t expect anyone in a city to be satisfied when they are so spoiled as to spend good money on a ridiculous quiet zone, thanks now I feel better.
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I am not from Jamestown but I still don’t understand your negativity. Most municipalities in the state and the state itself are having enough trouble maintaining population growth without its own citizens doing the bashing. And if a 25 bed facility is the largest around, how is it not a regional medical center? And hopefully people living 40-50 miles south of Jamestown won’t have to drive all the way to Bismarck or Fargo.
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Apparently you haven’t look at population stats. Jamestown has only a few hundred people more then it had in1960. Every other city in the to 10 in ND has more then doubled in size, except for Wahpeton, and they are up over 1,200. Jamestown used to be the 5th largest, now it’s barely clinging to 8th place and will move to 9th any day now as Williston is rapidly growing.
As to the hospital, I’d bet that Carrington has more beds then 25, and I’d say Mercy Hospital in Valley City is close to 25 if not above, yet they don’t bill themselves as a Super Duper World destination.
I’d also bet that anyone 50 miles south os Jamestown will go to Aberdeen or else to Fargo.
I’m not trying to be negative, just realistic. Sometimes the truth hurts.
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My take on Jamestown: we stopped there last summer with two small kids in tow. We didn’t need to stop, we could have trucked right on by and home to Fargo. But we stopped, I hadn’t been to the buffalo in years, and it’s one of those things that makes kid’s eyes get big when they get up close, it’s neat to them, it’s something they won’t see every day, and they tell their little friends about it. It’s an asset to Jamestown, and I hope to he** that your tourism department gets that, and can keep up the good work. The frontier town needs some work, it’s in tough shape. But if the fair citizens of Jamestown can get their head around the fact that a good share of these visitors also spend money at that attraction or restaurants, etc in Jamestown, that it’s a good thing for all of Jamestown. Take care of what you have there, it’s all good.
As for the hospital, wow, sorry Fred that you feel a brand spanking new technologically advanced medical center shouldn’t be splashed around. It’s another asset to the city, a minor thing called quality of life. You should look it up. Kudos to Jamestown for making this happen, you’ve made your city a better place.
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How much revenue does behavior like that generate anyway? Surely enough to drive a tourist economy.
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Fred, don’t be so negative. Jamestown has alot going for it. All depends on what you’re looking for. It lies in a valley where two rivers flow into and meet, has beautiful parks near the rivers, golf courses, 2 reservoirs for fishing, jet skiiing, railway and an interstate for commerce, new terminal being constructed at the airport (we’ll get another carrier after Delta) a new East Business Loop, new Regional Hospital (yes it’s regional because it serves quite a few small towns and rural areas in the region, excellant liberal arts college that has recently added new facilities, and the list goes on. I see you’re still here.
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Water! Golf courses! An airport! A hospital! And who can forget the Harvard of the Heartland? Wait, I just did. But seriously, what’s unique about any of that?
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Fred. Do you really think the other larger cities have grown simply because of some unique attraction that was built since 1960? The reasons are many: already a large community which generates growth in–and-of itself, military bases, state universities, energy industry, government headquarters ect., ect. Jamestown’s rural communities, smaller towns and farms, have also diminished in population over the past 50 years and this has had an impact as well.
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