Visit Fort Dodge (formerly the Fort Dodge Convention and Visitors Bureau) is not just a command or a nifty idea: It’s a passion and purpose for the staff.

Bringing visitors to spend the night, visit attractions and venues, and encourage others to visit is the name of the game.

“We’re here because we love this community, and we love the surprise on visitors’ faces when they see what Fort Dodge has to offer,” said Communications Specialist Geneva Dillon.

Dillon, along with Community Sales Manager Tiffany Conrad, works under Executive Director Kerrie Kuiper to market Fort Dodge as a visitor destination. This is done through social media management, paid advertising and other public relations, development and support of community projects, and networking. All of these efforts often include working with travel writers, event planners, sporting groups, associations, and a wide variety of other partners.

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The mural painted on these old grain silos along Hawkeye Avenue is one of the attractions Visit Fort Dodge highlights for visitors and travel writers alike.

“There’s actually a lot of agricultural, historical, and art tourism that takes place here,” said Kuiper. “We try to make sure visitors see the things in Fort Dodge that are interesting to them so they can leave with an experience.”

Since integrating Conrad and Dillon’s roles two years ago, Visit Fort Dodge has maintained current relationships and is continually building relationships with new partners, both inside and outside the community.

From these efforts, the organization has seen the rise of motorcoach groups planning return trips to the area as well as booking new tours from other states. Large national events like the Iron Sharpens Iron Wrestling Camp and GBC Heartland Challenge have expressed their intention to continue holding their events here. While Visit Fort Dodge plays a large part in securing these events, Kuiper notes that they are only possible because of the collaboration and generosity of local partners.

“The support offered for many of these groups and activities can’t be overstated,” she said. “The community’s range of entertainment and leisure options is one of the biggest draws, according to our visitors.”

Visit Fort Dodge’s projects also extend to local events. Two years ago the organization began using a calendar program which searches the internet for events happening in Fort Dodge that were listed on Facebook and Eventbrite, which then auto-populate to a community events calendar.

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The “Fort Dodge & Webster County Destination Guide” is a joint project between Visit Fort Dodge and The Messenger.

“This calendar tool really made a huge difference in the type of coverage we can provide for local events,” Dillon said. ” It does dozens of hours of work almost instantaneously, allowing us to focus on getting the information distributed to our followers.”

Their website was also revamped two years ago and provides information on local retail, dining, hotels, entertainment, arts, history, outdoor recreation, and more in and around Fort Dodge. The updated site was recognized by the Iowa Tourism Office and won its annual Outstanding Website award in 2023.

Two of the most recent projects, funded largely by a grant from the Iowa Tourism Office, include adding an audio version of the Webster County Destination Guide (also produced by Visit Fort Dodge in conjunction with The Messenger) to the website for those with visual impairments and translating the guide to Spanish.

“We have been working with a group who will host a conference in Fort Dodge this spring for the visually impaired and in brainstorming how we could better assist them, realized that none of our materials are optimized for their use,” Kuiper said. “This was a great opportunity to improve accessibility in a practical and functional way while providing for a stronger experience.”

The Spanish guide will be a benefit to those in the community or looking to move here who struggle with English as a second language. Attracting families to visit the area and assisting workforce recruitment efforts are important to Visit Fort Dodge’s attempts to open tourism in the area to a new demographic.

“We don’t have materials that are geared specifically toward non-English speakers, making it harder to encourage them to visit,” said Kuiper. “Ultimately, our goal is to bring all visitors to Fort Dodge.”

That goal is founded in the belief that Fort Dodge has more entertainment and leisure options than expected. It is a place where visitors can “Dodge the Ordinary,” as the Visit Fort Dodge motto says. Kuiper added, “We strive to get visitors to look deeper into the community, and they find the treasures that are abundant here.”

To help visitors to look deeper, Visit Fort Dodge partnered with several travel writers to provide authentic, outside voices and viewpoints on local offerings. The articles written by these creators were then included as the main content of the guide, so potential visitors could hear from unbiased sources.

“Of course we want people to hear about how great we are,” Dillon said.“But it’s not enough to tell them ourselves, since we have an interest in getting them to come here. The overwhelming response we’ve had from visitors is told best in the words of the visitors themselves, and that’s why we used them in our guide.”

To get your own copy of the Destination Guide or contact Visit Fort Dodge, you can email cvb@fortdodgeiowa.org, call 515-573-4282, or visit www.DodgeTheOrdinary.com. They are also on Linktree (linktr.ee/visitfortdodge) and Facebook/Instagram (@VisitFortDodge).