Chamber Listens – Other people’s ideas
Topic: Tourism
We need to have same air service as Bozeman.
I believe Billings needs to boost the downtown sector for increased visitation. Create a destination where people know they can find many of the things they are interested. I believe there should be a push for a mall downtown. The infrastructure is already there, i.e. the parking garages and the skywalks. We should model Spokane's downtown mall and create our own version here. I recently moved here and Im learning that things here are VERY spread out. Specialty shops and fine cuisine are scattered seemingly randomly throughout the city. Having a centralized destination for shops, coffee, cafes, clothing, restaurants, and attractions would increase visitation and help the visitor find a fun and exiting area to explore. The downtown scene is basically "ready" for these things to happen, it just lacks the direction and vision. Personally, I would love to go downtown to walk a skymall, tour the downtown history, check out a play, have dinner, then finish it off with drinks at a few places, ALL within walking distance of the heart of Billings, Downtown. All this could be done in a beautiful setting and without having to drive all over the city. Lyle Scott 406-788-3194
I would love to see a dedicated bike trail from Billings to Laurel and then Columbus and Red Lodge. This would be great for tourism. Great trails mean a great community. We don't ride in traffic so we love the dedicated bike trails.
I vote for a parking garage at the airport. I'm tired of parking in Laurel and walking to the terminal.
Open the Billings museums on Mondays! The number of people that visit the Visitor Center on Monday looking for something to do is huge. you can't believe how many are disappointed to find out they're all closed.
I believe we should provide FREE copies of the day's billings Gazette for everyone who comes into the Visitors Center.
Better signage to direct people from the interstate to the visitor center!
The chamber is heading the right direction in pushing for visitors to stay an additional day, i.e. Yellowstone Kelly. Develop more attractions from our (Billings) history. Jerry
We want to KEEP visitors in Billings. The museums ALL close on Monday! During summer, can you facilitate the 5 to add 1 of them to offer Billings' visitors on Mondays in summer.
Something that was originally talked about would be a whitewater park by Coulson Park. This could be a real draw for the community and an enhancement for the riverfront area to beautify the park area and also the trail system.