Finding balance with our visitors

The camping season kicks off this weekend with area campgrounds booked to capacity, many of them filled days before the holiday weekend even arrived.

The recreation areas will be teeming with locals and out-of-towners, everyone enjoying the warmer weather and celebrating the arrival of summer.

This can be seen as a good and bad.

Because our area has quite a few camping options, it is ripe for visitors from out of the state, usually Colorado. Locals often lament all the Coloradoans taking the camping spots and bringing their “hippy” ways.

On the other hand, those same visitors have extra money to spend, bringing a boost to the local economy. And it isn’t like most of us don’t travel to other states, spending money along the way.

So where is the balance between wanting others to experience and savor our little part of the world and wanting it to stay a secret and keep it to ourselves?

During the height of the Covid shut-down, there were stories of people isolated in their city apartments for weeks and months on end. Meanwhile, country and rural dwellers had ample space to spread out and maintain safe distances. That was the perk of living in a low-density area.

As people resume traveling and vacationing, that isolation is getting a littler hard to come by.

Again, just drive through the area campgrounds on a holiday weekend and you will see a mixture of local and out-of-state license plates filling every spot.

That up-tick in tourists and visitors doesn’t sit well with some people.

In an effort to keep people away, some locals like to share all the reasons why someone shouldn’t visit our community. Tongue-in-cheek posts highlight all the negative things about Nebraska, like the bugs, the scarcity of people, the bugs, the wild temperature swings, the bugs. All in an attempt to keep out the crowds and keep our little slice of heaven to ourselves.

But consider the alternative. Many of us travel regularly, spending our dollars in other locations, gaining new experiences, seeing the wonders of the world around us.

Don’t we want the same for others? To experience what we take for granted….wide open spaces, natural beauty, the opportunity to be by ourselves or with others if we choose to do so. And if they spend a few dollars while they are here, isn’t that a good thing?

A few weeks ago, Mathew and Sarah Baker Hansen spoke in McCook, as part of a Humanities Nebraska event connected to the Smithsonian traveling exhibit at the Keystone.

They have a book called, “The Better Half: Nebraska’s Hidden Treasures,” where they traveled the state highlighting the great businesses and locations across Nebraska. Sehnert’s Bakery is mentioned in the section about bierocs and Runzas. They simply wanted Nebraskans to appreciate what is literally in their own backyards.

During their recent visit, the Hansens quoted a survey about tourism. In 2015, people were asked where they are most likely to visit on vacation. To no one’s surprise, Nebraska ranked 50th.

This means one of two things. Either there is nothing to do in the state, but we all know that isn’t true. Or there are things to do, but we aren’t very good at promoting what we do have.

On the plus side, in the most recent survey, Nebraska did make an improvement, moving up to 47th place. So something has changed, albeit small, but still a step in the right direction.

At the end of the day, we are never going to have mountains. We are never going to have oceans. We are never going to have continuous, sunny 80-degree days. So we are never going to be overrun with tourists or visitors.

That being said, we also don’t have traffic jams. We don’t have crowds. We don’t have just one season. And that just be what tourists and visitors are looking for and what we in southwest Nebraska and northwest Kansas already have. Plus, we get to call it home all the time.