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Playing the part |
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A
bus tour firm uses creative methods to draw more visitors to the
Chippewa Valley |
Michael Klein
Leader-Telegram Staff |
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Jayne Plumer is at her talkative best when she’s wearing a
19th century dress and entertaining a busful of tourists.
Plumer and Kristal Meyer run Tours Etc., a company that
arranges bus tours of attractions in the Chippewa Valley,
usually for groups visiting from outside the area.
The women throw themselves into the job with a flair, wearing
cowboy clothes, old-fashioned dresses or even pumpkin
costumes. The 5-foot-11-inch Meyer suits up as the Statue of
Liberty at the patriotic finale to their “Jail Bailers”
variety show, another tour attraction.
“These people are coming back to small-town America — it’s
more the people than the attractions themselves,” Meyer said.
In addition to Tours Etc., Plumer and Meyer this year started
a tourism alliance called Innovative Tourism that they say is
the first of its kind in Wisconsin.
The company markets tours in western Wisconsin to touring
groups nationwide, seeking to direct them to its clients,
which are mostly local hotels and tourist attractions. Those
clients — about 20 so far — pay Innovative Tourism a
representation fee.
Clients include the Fanny Hill Dinner Theater, Holiday Inn
Campus Area and Cabin Ridge Rides.
Innovative Tourism was one of the winners of the 2003 Eau
Claire Area Economic Development Corp.’s Create Your Own
Business Contest.
Herby Radmann, owner of Bullfrog Fish Farm, a frequent tour
stop, said Plumer brings gusto to her job.
“She’s very committed to providing tours with a good time,” he
said, laughing. “Sometimes she’s embarrassing.”
Tours Etc. brings in a lot of tour business to the Chippewa
Valley that wouldn’t otherwise come, said Linda John, director
of the Eau Claire Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Plumer, 46, worked in the hotel business until she started
Tours Etc. about nine years ago. Meyer, 27, who had nine years
of experience in the tourism business, joined Plumer as a
business partner Jan. 1.
“This area was more of a stopover than a destination,” Plumer
said.
So she created three- to five-day bus tours that visit western
Wisconsin sites such as Fanny Hill, the Chippewa Valley Museum
and Trempealeau County.
“We’re trying to say ‘Hey, take a look at us,’ ” she said.
Tours Etc. now hosts 60 to 80 bus tours a year, with an
average of 40 to 45 people in each tour, most of them senior
citizens.
Tours Etc. hopes to double the number of tours in 2004, Plumer
said. Most tour groups now come from Iowa, Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Illinois, but Plumer and Meyer hope to expand
beyond that.
On behalf of Innovative Tourism clients, they plan to attend
national conventions to sell Eau Claire as a destination.
“Most people can’t send people out to scout a new area, so
they depend on people like us,” Plumer said.
Tours Inc. customizes most tours to fit the group, but it has
created a variety of themes, including:
n The Hysterically Historical tour: Plumer dresses in a period
custom as she leads the group through historic sites from Eau
Claire’s day as a lumber boomtown, including the Paul Bunyan
Logging Camp and the Chippewa Valley Museum.
n The Calamity Jayne Tour: The tour visits Cabin Ridge Rides
in Cadott. Plumer and Meyer dress in cowboy clothes and
pretend to hold up the bus.
n The Old-Fashioned Christmas Tour: The trip includes a visit
to Lowes Creek Tree Farm, and Plumer and Meyer dress as
reindeers and elves.
Also popular are mystery tours, in which participants don’t
know where they’re headed, Plumer said.
“We have so much fun,” she said. “A lot of tours have guides,
but we’re more entertainers.”
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