New Tourism Director Emphasizes Communication, Ideas

The new Tourism Director for Kimball, Jo Caskey, came to town this week to look at homes and meet members of the town. Caskey comes from Lake Havasu City, Arizona where she has lived for the past 20 months. However, this isn’t the first time Caskey has lived in the state.

“I’ve lived in Nebraska before. I love the Midwest. I grew up all over the Midwest, and I’ve lived in the high plains. I’m very familiar with the area. For me, it’s coming home. It’s not going elsewhere. To me, it’s a good fit,” Caskey said.

Before coming to Kimball, Caskey had a long career in the hospitality industry. She has served as the Director of Sales for the Lake Havasu City Convention of Visitors Bureau, Director of Convention of Visitors Bureau in Spearfish, South Dakota, and she also worked with the chamber in Columbus, Nebraska in retail development until ultimately creating a Visitors Bureau there as well.

“I’ve been in and out of the hospitality industry since I was in college. Let’s put it this way, the only two things in the hospitality industry I have not done has been a cook in a full service restaurant and housekeeping,” Caskey explained.

Caskey was attracted to Kimball because of the small town environment and values.

“Small town. Midwest Values. Nebraska values. I like it out here. It’s some prairie, some high country. I just like the area. It appealed to me. There were a lot of positions open for big bureaus. I don’t want to go some place big. I much prefer something smaller, more intimate, more community involvement, and some place where you can be an integral component and not just some bureau sitting up there,” Caskey said.

Caskey’s first plan when she starts work is to take an inventory and get to know what there really is to offer visitors here in Kimball and how to get that information to them.

“Today’s traveling consumer is very internet savvy. We have a lot of things missing on our website. I have to do an inventory. There’s the restaurants, the gas stations, the campgrounds, the fast food, the quick stops, the cute specialty shops, the golf course, the fitness center…I need to know all that information that’s available and what a traveler might want to do while they’re here,” Caskey said.

Caskey also wants to get the Kimball community to start seeing itself through a different perspective in order to understand the value and interest in some of the seemingly ordinary things they do every day.

“When you live with it all the time, you don’t see it. It’s only when somebody else comes in with a different perspective and points it out to you that you say, ‘A-ha. We can do that’. That is tourism,” Caskey pointed out.

Caskey also plans to collaborate with other tourism professionals in order to direct people to the area and create more resources in order to put Kimball on the map.

“When you’re a small community, you have to partner. With partnering, you can do more. If everyone throws a little bit into the pot and shares, then you can actually extend your reach further. Unless you’re somebody like a New Orleans or Los Angeles, you don’t have the budget to not co-op. That’s a critical factor. You’ve got to build those partnerships,” Caskey said.

Part of that partnership starts with the local groups, according to Caskey. She plans to start this partnership by speaking at social groups in town about what’s going on, the benefits that could come to the community, and most importantly, be there to answer any questions the public may have.

“Communication is the key and community buy-in is the key, and they can’t buy in if they don’t know what’s happening. I have to be out there telling them what’s happening, and if they don’t understand, I have to be available for them to ask questions,” Caskey said.

Part of the process of figuring out how to move Kimball’s tourism industry forward is listening to the people and compromise, according to Caskey.

“I want their ideas. What’s their idea and what’s their piece of the vision for Kimball. It’s never going to be just one person’s way. It has to be a compromise. They’ve lived here longer than I have. So what do you see? What do you think is needed most? What do you think would attract somebody here?” Caskey emphasized.

The emphasis Caskey puts on marketing Kimball is not mostly on change, but rather emphasizing what’s already here and realizing the appeal that Kimball already has.

“This is real America. This is the real ranch farm west, and we forget it because we’re in the middle of it,” she said.

Caskey’s official first day of work is January 22.