The state will spend up to $5 million in coronavirus relief money to promote visiting and relocating to South Dakota.
It’s called Governor Kristi Noem’s Invitation to South Dakota and features the Black Hills, Badlands and a running herd of bison.
The commercial has already been airing on Fox News for about a week at a cost of $800,000.
The tourism department is using $5 million of the state allocated $1.25 billion to air the commercial on several more networks in the coming days.
Ian Fury is a spokesperson for Governor Noem’s office.
“Tourism is South Dakota’s second largest, second most important industry,” Fury says. “There’s been a lot of interest in visiting South Dakota from folks who might not have visited the state in the past. We’re hopeful with this ad we’re able to get them to come visit our state and see the great faces, the great places we have to offer.”
Fury says the ad invites people to explore South Dakota’s wide-open spaces safely. He says treasury department guidance allows CARES Act dollar spending for that kind of tourism promotion.
The Department of Tourism is transitioning the commercial to other networks, including national networks like HGTV, History, TBS, USA, TLC, Hallmark, A&E, Discovery, etc. That media plan is still in the finalizing stage.