Celebrating National Tourism Week

Hundreds of cities, states and businesses nationwide will salute the travel and tourism industry during the weeklong tradition of exploring tourism during the 25th annual National Tourism Week, May 10-18. The silver anniversary theme, “Discover Great American Traditions,” encourages travel and highlights the role tourism plays in discovering the icons of a destination.
    The Dodge City CVB would like the citizens of Dodge City to join us in celebrating our Western heritage and exploring the attractions and history our city has to offer. We are eager for participation in the nationwide event and hope that the interests of the public will expand tourism awareness in our community and remind everyone that the height of tourism season is upon us.      By drawing attention to our local attractions, we hope to help remind our citizens of all our community has to offer to the traveling visitors and how important those visitors are to our local economy. The goal is to enhance the perception and recognize the cultural and social benefits created by travel and tourism.
    Dodge City has some of the most  amazing historical attractions with Boot Hill and Mueller-Schmidt House, just to name a few. We also have some wonderful cultural arts at The Depot Theater Company and The Carnegie Center.
    Dodge City has an excellent facility at Raceway Park for those who love racing. Along with that, for the person who has military interests, there are Liberty Garden and the Southwest Kansas Veterans Memorial. You can mosey the Trail of Fame or stride the walking path at Sheridan Sports Center, and for that sports enthusiast, Dodge City has Legends Park and a new soccer complex. All of these Dodge City amenities and more are at the disposal of the citizens of Dodge City and our visitors for exploring and discovering.
    Boot Hill alone receives well over 70,000 visitors a year. Along with that, there are many more who visit during our annual Dodge City Days event in July and August. They come to see the world finest rodeo, soak up the concert and take in the arts and crafts fair. They are from right here in Kansas, or they come from Colorado, Missouri, Texas and every other state in the union, and they travel from as far away as Japan, England, South America, Australia and other parts of the world. Our visitors come to experience our city. They come to learn about our past, to shop, hunt and enjoy our festivals and events. They come with visions of cowboys and history and expect our Western hospitality.
    On Saturday, May 10th, we hope you'll come down and take a tour on the trolley, visit the train depot, check out Boot Hill or stroll over to the  Carnegie Center for the Arts and just remind yourself just how great Dodge City really is. When someone stops you in the store or at a restaurant and asks you what there is to do in Dodge City, you'll have an answer and can help us keep them in town for just another day.   
    We hope you can help us in promoting Dodge City to visitors in this upcoming tourist season by taking in some of the sights of the city and becoming a Dodge City ambassador and greet our visitors with a Great Big Dodge City Howdy! So dust off your cowboy hats and help us in welcoming the visitors to Dodge City.
    Keep an eye on the Globe this week; they'll be helping us out by highlighting some select attractions and explaining what they have to offer.
    • Did you know that in 2007, the Dodge City Visitors Information Center welcomed more than 18,000 visitors?
    • Did you know that over 5,000 welcome packets were distributed, 53 groups visiting in our community were assisted with planning their visit to Dodge City and Dodge City hosted 74 conferences?
    • Did you know that the Dodge City Railers greeted over 4,000 visitors at the Santa Fe Depot in 2007?
    • Did you know Dodge City has received four awards in the travel and tourism industry in the past year? Dodge City Days received American Bus Association Top 100 Events in the United States for two years in a row. True West Magazine named Dodge City #5 in the Top 10 True Western Towns in the United States. OutdoorLife Magazine awarded Dodge City #108 in the Top 200 Towns for Outdoorsmen. Wedding Plan Magazine awarded Dodge City's, Hoover Pavilion as #8 of the Top 10 Places to hold a reception in the state of Kansas.
    • Did you know that Dodge City has over 20 attractions, public art and points of interests and 11 historical story boards within the city limits?
    • Did you know Dodge City has almost 20 city parks and three ball park complexes?
    • Did you know that Dodge City has 15 lodging facilities with 853 rooms, and two campgrounds for RV travelers?
    • Did you know Dodge City has over 40 restaurants and 30 meeting rooms? 
    • Did you know the CVB web site had 168,000 hits from places as far away as New Zealand and Africa? 
    • Did you know each visitor that comes to Dodge City spends an average of between $100 and $200 a day? The money these travelers spend help to fuel our local economy.
    • Did you know that tourism is the third-largest private sector employer in the state?
    • Did you know that tourism generated $1.7 billion in federal, state and local government taxes in 2006?
    • Did you know that each U.S. household would pay $995 more in taxes without the tax revenue generated by the travel industry?
    • Did you know… Five words are said to have originated in Dodge City: "STINKER," applied to the smell of the buffalo hunter. "JOINT," used as name for saloons. "COOLER" described the city's first jail, which was a well 15 deep in which drunks were lowered to cool off and sober up. "STIFF," applied to the dead bodies that had become rigid, substituting "stiff" for "corpse." "RED LIGHT DISTRICT" came from railroaders leaving their lanterns in front of the brothels.
    Other fun Dodge City facts:
    • Dodge City lies on the 100th Meridian, a geographical line 100 degrees of longitude west of Greenwich.
    • Five flags have flown over the area south of the Arkansas River that remained part of the Spanish territory.
    • The largest employer in Dodge City is Excel Corp., the largest beef processing facility in the world!
    • Only one woman was buried on Boot Hill. “Squirrel Tooth” Alice Chambers was buried on May 7, 1878.
    • The original Front Street burned down twice, in 1885 and 1886.
    • More than 12,000 head of cattle are processed in Dodge City's two packing plants each day.
    • The cow-to-person ratio in Ford County is 6:1. That's six cows to every person!