CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Last week’s Latin American FAM (Familiarization) Tour marked the first time a group of professionals has visited Iowa through this partnership. Marshalltown was one of five communities invited to host the group from Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.

“Why do we need a tourism director anyway?”

These are the words my eldest son shared with me two months into my role as the Tourism Director of the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce. My initial reaction, jokingly, was, “How dare you. This job will help pay for you to go to college.”

I couldn’t totally blame him, because when we think of “tourism,” we think of “Disney” and “destination weddings.” Recently, I celebrated two years in my role, I can give you dozens of examples of why tourism is essential to Marshalltown. The core of tourism is hospitality. Making guests feel welcomed, prepared for, and at home, even when they are new to the area. It is an honor to be entrusted with telling the Marshalltown story inside and outside Marshalltown’s zip code, collaborating with you all, while cheerleading all of the great things happening. But instead of sharing a bulleted list, I thought we would have some fun and utilize the lightning rod DOGE method, “name 5 things you did this week.”

On my LinkedIn on Monday, I tried my hand at it (technically, I listed 6):

What does a week in the life of the Tourism Director of a micropolitan community look like? A week filled with festival planning, executive recruiting tours for local global companies, prospective principals, a pastoral candidate at a local church, website development, and all capped off with an incredible time with tour planning professionals from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Brand USA, and Travel Iowa.

Let me add some flesh to the bones of my post. Marshalltown and the surrounding area have an embarrassment of great festivals. Some would say we have a fiesta season from May through September. Thousands of people come to Central Iowa from around the county, the Midwest, and the globe to attend Oktemberfest, Harvest Market, Rose Festival, Meskwaki Powwow, Theravada Dhamma Society Water Festival, Black Dirt Days, and at least a dozen more. I am honored to help spearhead a 249-year-old holiday celebration, 4th of July, and turn it from a 6-hour celebration, to a two-day Red, White, and Blue Celebration on July 3rd and 4th. Last week was filled with finalizing the website (www.marshalltown4thofjuly.com), sending out fundraising letters, connecting with the 10+ event partners, and finalizing bands, food, fun, and face painters.

Tourism isn’t always about big groups and short stays, sometimes it’s about welcoming those who may become full-time Marshalltonians. In workforce development, there is a saying, “It all begins with a visit”. Over the last two years, I’ve taken dozens of potential candidates for jobs at our school district, city, global employers, local churches, medical centers, and potential developers from across the country and around the world. Kate Bowermaster, Workforce Development Director at the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce, and I can tell the Marshalltown story, curating specific tours designed for what the candidates care about. We have one simple goal on these tours: to help our guests picture themselves and their families living in our community. To date, 25+ engineers, directors, doctors, educators, principals, sales, developers, and new leaders in our community have said yes to the job offers and Marshalltown.

Finally, my week was capped off on Saturday with one of the best experiences I’ve had in my role. Brand USA, a company focused on bringing International travel to the United States, has partnered with Travel Iowa, Iowa’s tourism arm, to bring more international travel groups to Iowa. Last week’s Latin American FAM (Familiarization) Tour marked the first time a group of professionals has visited Iowa through this partnership. Due to our strong partnership with Travel Iowa and our groundbreaking work with our Spanish-speaking tourism identity “Nos Vemos en Marshalltown,” Marshalltown was one of five communities invited to host the group from Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. This tour is the first step to having tour professionals go back to their respective countries and bring large groups to explore and enjoy the best state in the nation. Marshalltown, I have good news for you, they were blown away by our great story, our creativity, our food, our city, and most importantly, our hospitality.

That’s what tourism looks like in Marshalltown…at least for one week. Next week, I will be excited to continue to share the Marshalltown story wherever I am and with whomever is with me.

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Dylan Does is the tourism director for the

Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce.