July Newsletter

Can you believe we’re already halfway through 2024?  At Kansas Tourism, we’re not slowing down and have already had a packed July. 

Sunflower Summer is about halfway over for the summer, and we have already seen over 244,000 tickets downloaded on the Sunflower Summer app!  That is 244,000 times Kansans have explored and fallen in love with our state’s attractions.   

On July 1, we kicked off the new Love, Kansas campaign in Manhattan, announcing 19 pilot communities and 7 universities that have already engaged with this talent attraction initiative.  The response has been overwhelming.  If you missed the July Huddle this past week, I encourage you to watch it to learn more about this campaign.  Also, be sure to visit LoveKansas.com.

The next exciting thing that has happened this month is the addition of a new Kansas Tourism team member, Kevin Crockett.  Kevin will manage our Mobile Visitor Center that we will be launching this fall.  You can find out more about Kevin below. 

And the final news we have is the announcement of the 2025 TBEX summit to be held in Wichita.  We are thrilled with this partnership between Visit Wichita and Kansas Tourism and know it will bring significant benefits to our state. 

You are going to be hearing a lot more about these projects in the coming weeks. Don’t forget to register for the Tourism Conference – it is going to be a fantastic conference filled with valuable information and fun. 

To The Stars,

Welcome Our Newest Staff Member

Kevin Crockett, born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, has joined the tourism team as the new Mobile Visitor Center Manager.  Kevin spent his childhood growing up in a movie theater and his adult life in the television industry. After earning his degree from Southern Illinois University, Kevin worked at KSNW, KWCH, WEVV, Disney Television, and Dick Clark Productions. He has won the Kansas Association of Broadcasters' Newscast of the Year award twice. Inspired by his parents' love of travel, Kevin has explored much of the U.S. and parts of Europe, a passion he continues with his husband, Jeremy. In his free time, Kevin runs a website dedicated to Wichita's history, art, and stories. He is also an avid shot glass collector, boasting a collection of over 3,000, and was recently featured in the book "Crave, Covet, Collect."

TBEX 2025 Summit

Grant Opportunities

Barn Adaptation and Restoration Needs (BARN) Grant - This program is designed to support and expand agritourism businesses across Kansas through converting underutilized or vacant historic barns into new venues. The application round is open and has a deadline of July 31st.

Tourism Marketing Grant - This grant was developed to assist organizations in innovative, dedicated advertising and marketing. The application round is open and has a deadline of August 2nd. 

Be sure to also check out other grants available from the Kansas Department of Commerce. A NEW grant guide has just been released and you can view it here.

DTN Partnership

A quick heads-up that you may get an email and/or phone call from a company called “DTN” in the coming days or weeks. As you may already know, DTN also known as Destination Travel Network, is a digital partner that works with destination marketing organizations like ours to produce and publish paid content on TravelKS.com and to help move our website visitors to become customers for our partners.

With DTN’s help, we’ve put together a small selection of paid content placements on TravelKS.com that we believe will help get your message in front of more of our visitor audience and to send more of those visitors to your website. Details about these placements can be found here.

We invite you to be a part of the Kansas tourism industry's "don't miss" conference of the year. Registration is now open! Join us October 21-23 in Olathe to enjoy inspiring speakers, valuable educational information, and fun networking opportunities. Kansas has so many things to celebrate this year and we can't wait for you to be a part of the fun!

Kansas Tourism Regions

Have you connected with your local tourism marketing region yet? 

To find out when the next meeting is in your region click here.

Upcoming Workshops

• July 17 - Small Business Marketing Meetup - Wichita
• October 9-10 - Kansas Arts Councils Symposium - Salina

Webinars

• Watch Now - July Industry Huddle on Love Kansas

Articles & Research

• Captivating Generational Travelers

• How Community-Based Tourism Empowers Locals and Enhances Travel

• How DMOs Can Achieve Digital Transformation

• How DMOs Can Maximize the Bleisure Travel Trend

• Launched a New Site? Here’s How To Keep It Up and Running

• PR for DMOs: a guide to writing effective press releases

• The Animal Travel Influencers Taking Over the Skies

• The Top 4 Social Media Trends DMOs Should Dive Into or Avoid

• What Would You Do: Welcoming a Deaf Traveler

• Why You Should Steer Clear of These Black Hat SEO Tactics (and What to Do Instead)

July

• Wed, July 31 - BARN Grants Close

August

• Fri, Aug 2 - Gov Council Mtg
• Fri, Aug 2 - Marketing Grants Close

September

• Mon, Sept 2 - State Offices Closed
• Sept 6-15 - Kansas State Fair
• Wed, Sept 11 - Virtual Huddle

For a full list of industry events click here.

We are continuously getting new and renewing Kansas Agritourism businesses that we'd love for you to explore and highlight in your own communities! For more information on the Kansas Agritourism Program, please contact Kelsey Wendling.

New & Renewing in June 2024