Welcome to the Nobody Knows podcast with Callie Zamzow. Join us for conversations with local changemakers and hear the stories that don't always get told. It'll be honest, messy and beautiful. Touching and humorous. Slow down for a glass and pull up a chair. This is the Nobody Knows podcast.

Welcome to Nobody Knows. I'm your host, Callie Zamzow, and I hope you're having a wonderful day. And thank you for listening today. I want to talk a little bit, because of our guest today, I want to talk. I just kind of quickly tell a story about when I was a kid, how Boise was. I was born and raised here, and, I had cousins that lived out of state, and they were the coolest cousins.

They still are the coolest cousins. They were older than me. And they would come in, come to Boise in the summertime for a week to spend some time with my grandparents. And, as a kid, this was a very frumpy place for somebody who came from Seattle or, you know, some of the San Francisco, some of the other places that my cousins came from.

And so they would come in and, I would be so embarrassed of the city that I lived in. And I feel I think about it now as an adult and how far Boise has come. And the fact that when they weren't here, I loved Boise. I loved everything about it. I loved how small it was. I loved how, even their downtown was a special place and a cool place, and it seemed, exciting and fun and interesting.

But but interesting to think about how much, how much things have changed and just this wonderful city that we have that has been wonderful and continues to kind of change. But stay wonderful. And so with that, I want to introduce our our guest today, Carrie Hughes. She is the executive director of Visit Boise. So we get to talk all about Boise today.

I'm so excited about that. She leads the team that is responsible for helping people fall in love with our city. And, whether they're here for a weekend or a convention or a brand new chapter in life, they're they're coming to our our city or town, as I still like to call it. So welcome. Welcome to the studio, Carrie.

Thank you. I'm glad to be here. It's great to have you here. I am so curious about so many things about just particularly your position right now in this particular time before we get going, will you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and kind of what you do? So we really try to inspire people to explore and actually make the decision to come and see all that Boise has.

And so that's that's like the very short version of our mission. And our vision is really to get people to say that Boise is the place I need to go. We're still not there. I know we think we've just been, you know, like every visitor, every person in the world knows about Boise. But there are a lot of people that, still have not made that choice to come here.

And, and so that's that's the ultimate vision. I lead a team of amazing people, professionals that are very passionate about the city, about everything the city has to offer from the culture, arts, sports, outdoor recreation to the downtown, to the surrounding area, the Sunnyslope, everything that area has to offer. And it really shows, right? They really want to invite their clients here, the visitors here, to explore and get to know the destination as much as we do.

If your job must be massive, it's like, gosh, and there are just so many moving parts. I mean, a lot of people see one part of what we do, but we are the marketing, the destination marketing arm for Boise. So externally, you know, you don't see a lot of things here within Boise, but externally is where, you know, our marketing hits and a lot of times we focus on our nonstop markets and our drive markets where it's easier to get to from here.

And we don't have a huge budget, so we really have to kind of zero in on on where, you know, our reach is. And then we also have a great sales team that really concentrates on bringing in the meetings, events, conventions. When you see those lanyards walking around town, that we've touched in one way or another.

So those citywide conventions that stay in a multiple, a lot of hotels, as well as use a convention center to the smaller group that may use one hotel, as well as all the sports. You know, that's just exploded, especially since I'd say the pandemic. It's really, you know, grown here tremendously. So tell us a little bit about what brought you to Boise and specifically, you know, what led you to visit Boise?

I've always been in tourism and marketing. I'm one of those rare people that actually went to college for this. Really? Yes. That's a thing I didn't know is a thing interesting. And it was back then, we won’t age myself, but back then it was, it was harder to find a four year, institution that that offered a tourism program.

But I found one in Pennsylvania, and it actually offered tourism in business administration, which was the best thing for me. And then while I was in college, I waited at a resort as a waitress, up in the Adirondacks in Lake Placid. I'm from the East Coast originally, and, right when I graduated, they were like, don't you have a tourism degree?

And I'm like, yes. And they're like, well, we have a position. We have a sales position. So that was my first job right out of college. I worked in a lot of resorts, property management, hotels. And I had visited the West during college, and particularly I had visited Colorado, and I fell in love with Estes Park and, you know, Boulder and the ski towns.

Right. I'm a skier. I've been skiing since I was six. And so, I knew I wanted to go out there. And so I took a year after I had that job, I, I got my first pink slip. I got, well, my only I got laid off everybody. They closed the resort. It was not doing well. And so I told my parents, I'm going to take this severance and I'm going to go I'm going out west, packed up my car, put my bike, my skis and what I could fit in my car and took three days and got to Colorado.

And then in Colorado, I was there for a year. I worked for a hotel group, and I loved it. I probably didn't give it enough of a chance, but I kept hearing about this amazing place called Ketchum, Sun Valley, Idaho, and being a skier, I had to check that out. And so again, this doesn't make me sound very, stable. You’re young.

But in my 20s, in my 20s, I probably wasn't. So I packed up my car again and went to, Ketchum and stayed there for 17 years. Wow. And through there, it was always like my parents again, were a little worried about my decisions. But it's all worked out. It's worked out great, but I ended up being the marketing director of the Sun Valley Ketchum Visitors Bureau for like, 15 of those years and marketing and PR and so I've been in the industry a long time.

When it was time to leave, that destination, I could only think of Boise. And one of the reasons that attracted me to Boise. I mean, I've been over here a lot, a lot of when you're in Idaho, you have a lot of relationships all over the state. But I had a lot of relationships over here.

And then I also, I loved the fact that we had a ski mountain 16 miles up the road is pretty cool. I mean, not that many cities have that kind of access, right. And so that that was the drive to say thank you, Bogus for bringing me here. And I act like I ski every day or something.

I do not, but I do have a season pass. And I do love that mountain and year round now. I mean, they've done Brad Wilson since been a phenomenal job. And the whole team over there. Yeah, I, I've been amazed at what I went to. I've never been up during the summertime until a couple weeks ago. And it's wonderful.

It's just as fun in the summertime as it is in the winter, maybe just as fun. Different fun. Different. Very cool. And lots and lots of things to do. Even if you just want to sit on a grassy knoll and enjoy the sunshine. And they have music on the mountain. Yes. And I mean, so you don't have to be athletic to go up there and it's a little cooler, you know, a couple of degrees cooler up there and just a beautiful drive.

And so that's kind of what drew me here. When I first came, I actually worked at the Boise Metro Chamber, running their leadership and young professional programs. I did a little departure from tourism at that time, but I thought, oh, they all translate, right? I know PR, I know marketing, I can market and promote these programs.

And then this position, kind of presented itself and, and, you know, earlier in my career, I would have said probably I don't know if I could say this on can I say, hell yeah. I was like, I've said, hell no. You know, like I just didn't think that I was ready for that leadership role. But what's interesting, when it came up this time, I'm like, well, if I can help, if I can be of service, if my skill set can translate, I would like I'd be very interested.

And so and I loved the team. It was a very small team at that point in time. It was called the Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau. And so I put my name in and went through the whole interview process and got it. And what I realized, which was, I think it's probably a great point for those that are ever uncertain of moving into a leadership role, I realize that what you do throughout your career, and if you've had good bosses, which I had great bosses that kind of did not micromanage, empowered me.

You're already doing the things you're already knowing a budget. You're already managing your own budget. You're already managing people. So it really just translated really well. Much better than I thought it would. Oh, we're glad to have you here. So, so grateful that you're doing the job that you're doing. And thank you, for the whole city of Boise.

Thanks to you. And I'm going to say that on behalf of all of them. So, you know, what do you love most about your job? What does that what's your favorite part about what you do? You know, there's really so much I will say. I love the team that we built. I love seeing them excel and excel in what they do the best, which is really show off this community.

And so, what I love is seeing people experience our destination and have those surprise moments and just, you know, really fall in love with the community that we already, we love and know so well. Yeah. Well, so on that note, is there, is there like a, a myth or a misconception that you often hear about Boise from, from outsiders that they are?

Yeah, there is actually, I brought these because I thought they were so interesting. We just had a group of clients in town in July. We bring them in to kind of get to know the area. It's called a familiarization tour. And so they're here for three days or 13 plus one journalist. And, we did a survey afterwards.

We asked them, what did you think about Boise before you got here? And then what do you think about it now? And I had to put some of these down because they were very open to giving testimonials. And so I would say that most had either no impression before they got here or they thought it was a very slow, quiet college town.

Kind of someone referred to it as like a Dawson’s Creek. You know, they thought they're going to be walking into something like that. And so let me read one of their things, if you don't mind. I'll admit, I went into this trip with pretty stereotypical expectations. I was picturing Boise is basically a CW drama come to life, like One Tree Hill or Dawson's Creek, but set in the mountains that classic small you know, knows each other.

Life moves at a slower pace, and there's a drama around every corner. Being a college town boy, was I wrong. Boise has this incredible urban energy that completely caught me off guard. It's a thriving city with an amazing local business scene, vibrant art scene, culture, and residents who are genuinely passionate about their community. What struck me most was how pristine and walkable everything is.

The foothill views are stunning and you can tell people really take pride in their city. Which I love. I love hearing that. I love that that translated. Yeah, especially with a short visit. Yes. Yeah, very short visit. And and that was one of the, you know, many similar comments after that. It's interesting, interesting to think about the before and after.

And people have never been here. So when you think about Boise's story, do you have, do you hope that visitors, you know, do they that they'll feel a particular way or that they will come away, you know, seeing the city a particular way? Is there something you're actually like a goal? I don't know if it's it's a goal as much as we just want them to have enjoy themselves.

Right. However that looks for them. Because, you know, that's the thing with with any kind of experience, everyone can experience a destination differently. I mean, we just had Jaialdi here and there is a million ways to experience reality, you know, depending on how you wanted to go about it. Yeah. So I was asking the team this morning, so what did you do?

What did you do? Because you really could you never you know, we didn't run into each other, but you could really, you know, if you wanted to quiet, quieter experience or if you wanted to be right in the middle of it. So, so it's really hard to pinpoint exactly how you want them to walk away other than this, like what that person said about feeling the pride of the city, the cleanliness, the walkability, the, you know, variety of things, I think I think it really amazes people.

The variety of cultural and, restaurants and attractions that they can do and experience here. Yeah. So with something like Jaialdi what what is your role like what what does Visit Boise do for. Because they, they kind of already know that it's every five years. Is that right okay. So they already kind of their group kind of knows what they're doing kind of and they've, they've sort of got things rolling.

How how do you interrelate there and help. Like what's what is the role of Visit Boise. You know, in a situation like that's just an example. Yeah. For that particular event. They've they've an amazing committee, that has worked on it probably multiple, you know, for the last 20 years. We are supporter in sponsorship and sponsors.

We also brought in we had four journalists here from all over the country that I was with, brought them to some of the events. They really are the event promoters. We do not put on events. The only event we put on is the Rose Awards, which really recognizes the service industry in the spring. And that's really a give back to really, elevate the excellent customer service and hospitality in the community.

So every other event that you see, we probably touch in some way, but it's mostly through, sponsorship dollars and or we’ll promote it, market it externally. Okay. All right, shifting gears, this may be kind of a touchy subject. We'll see. So there, the city obviously has grown tremendously in a very short period of time. There are a chunk of people that live in this area.

They're not super excited about that. They kind of like the old Boise. They don't want a lot of other people coming in. It's happening. It's I mean, it's happening. So I think we all have our various opinions about that. When it comes to Visit Boise, how do you balance that? How do you balance out that the, the people who really don't want anybody else to come here and the people who are, you know, like bring them in, let's, you know, the more the merrier.

So how do you balance that when it comes to Visit Boise? You know, it is. It is really a touchy subject. You're welcome. Thanks for that. I would say, you know, we live here also. I, you know, it's our community as well. We certainly take that, you know, definitely in consideration. You know, we know that the community is today.

I mean, it's hard because we we hear that as well. And and I think that a lot of the amenities and attractions and things I mean, if you asked restaurant owners if they could live just off of, you know, the local, you know, I mean, I think they need we need both. Right? But we need it in, we want to do it in a very, respectful way.

And I could see us doing more of a, I know the state has a big effort around travel with care. Other states have have done that in communities where, there's over tourism. I don't see us as an over tourism destination. We probably the growth that you've seen has been more people moving here. Our tourism has been a steady growth.

And, you know, there's definitely more events and things for people to come into town for. But they come, they spend their money and they leave. And it does help offset our taxes when they're paying into, you know, the tax bracket, you know, for when everything's being collected off of their lodging, their restaurants, their shopping, you know, it is a balance.

We did implement, I think it was last year. We started working with a company that does this narrated trail experience. And that was kind of our beginning part of like a travel with care. It's called Trail Pilot. And you can get an audio, in your ear of not getting lost on the trails. So it's really to help, you know, with their visitor experiences, trying to help secure, their, you know, not getting lost in the foothills, but also the messaging that kind of get sprinkled in there is take out you know, leave, leave how you found it, leave the trails the way, you know, because I think, you know, there's going to be a constant education around things like that, things that we love. We want to keep preserved in that way. Right? Right. We want our visitors to come and trash everything up and then leave.

So. Exactly. Yeah. Okay, I get that. All right. So what are some of your biggest goals for Boise Tourism in the coming? Let's call it five years. Well, you know, some of it's going to rely on right now. One of our partners, we're we're a marketing partner, of the Boise Auditorium District, which operates the Boise Center and the aquatic Center.

They are going through a feasibility study on kind of what's next. And so that should be rolling out this fall on the findings. It could be, I mean, it could be a choice of do nothing. There could be, expand the current location of the convention center where it's at. It could be a whole different location. It could be a multi-sport. 

So really I think our some of our future will be determined around the results of that. Like if it ends up being, an expansion somewhere else. But that's going to change our sales efforts are you know, who, who are audiences, our target audience. And, you know, it's going to make some shifts for sure. But, you know, I think we will introducing more of that, travel with care messaging, I think because it is I mean, our, our residents are our clients as well.

You know, we we know that I think we're all experiencing because they can see that through the pride of the city. Right. And we're all going and experiencing the foothills and the and the downtown and the attractions. And so we want to probably do some more resident sentiment and, you know, definitely keep that front of mind because we want our residents to be our champions like they've been.

They are the biggest cheerleaders for our community and the biggest champions. And so we want that to continue. And so that'll that'll be probably next five years. I'm sure that will come up more. Yeah. You talk about the study I, I was on the Urban Renewal District board in Meridian for a little while. And what an education on the depths that you dive into when you're trying to study and understand all the puts and takes of things.

I know we weren't doing tourism, but, I mean, and what we were doing were, you know, studies about could could this city handle you know, how many more breweries could we add here? And, you know, that's sort of interesting, but there are many minutia. You look at minutia that the average person probably has no idea. And I wonder sometimes, at least for me anyway, when I saw behind the curtain a little bit, it would frustrate me when I would hear like blanket statements about things that were going on.

And I would be like, you have no idea. The depths and the amount of work that we're doing to try to do this right and to do it thoughtfully and to do it on behalf of the citizens. And I would imagine you probably get a little of that, a little bit, a little bit of pushback sometimes that you have to just say, well, I know what we're doing.

I'm aware of what my team is going through to make sure that we're doing these things the right way. And you just have to trust us. How do you how do you manage that? Like, is that are you like me where I'm like like I just want to throttle people sometimes. No, I mean, I think everyone comes from a different place, right?

Where they're. You're right. They don't. They're not as informed about the whole process of things. I mean, a good example might be, you know, we just hosted for the first time the Ironman. And that was the first time in ten years. So we brought back the half Ironman. And, you know, there's learning experience for all of us.

And so we take the feedback, you know, we got some feedback about, I think the biggest inconveniences when someone cannot move their car if they are stuck in traffic anywhere, that is that is not okay. It's true. And I'm probably one of those people as well. If I didn't know something was going on, I'd probably be the same way.

So I think getting some of that feedback was like, oh, you know, we thought, you know, not like they were communicating there. You know, I think ever you could not communicate enough. Yeah. When things are going to be a little disruptive for a few hours, you know, different different directions, you can go this way, you can go that way.

Just, you know, just over communication. I think we need to do that more next year. And so we definitely learned lessons. We continue to learn lessons. And you know, we're not like it's our way or that, you know, we're not that way. We welcome feedback and we will, take it and improve hopefully the the future. Yeah. So are there any upcoming projects that you're particularly excited about right now?

You know, of course you've probably seen the city. I mean, I've been in this position ten years and, you know, the city has has grown with hotels, especially downtown. There is a new project that's going to be, you've probably seen it building, you know, raising in the skyline. It's a dual concept AC element hotel with 285 rooms.

So it's the first one of its kind here, there, there in other parts of the, you know, country. Sometimes there’s three different concepts, but it's a Marriott product, that is right on Front Street. So you’ve seen that going up and that should open next summer. And that that will add a whole, you know, another great asset to our community.

And that's already great, right? We have some great products, from boutique hotels to, you know, small to luxury. And, you know, we're kind of excited about what that will bring. Well, speaking of great things, it's time to thank our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Zamzows, your local source for lawn, garden, and pet products.

And whether you're planting roots or just passing through, Zamzows helps you feel at home in nature. Visit zamzows.com or stop by one of our 12 Treasure Valley locations. Nobody Knows Like Zamzows. Okay, we're going to enter this next section that we like to call Sharing Is Caring. So I want to I want to just talk about some things that you're loving lately.

So I'll have a couple questions. Are you ready for this quick, quick fire round? Sure. Okay. All right, so what's a Boise business that you always recommend, right? That's right. I can't just recommend one. Well, you know, don't break the rules, I don't care. So I love to recommend. I mean, we have so many, unique and unique restaurants and stores and, you know, so I would say, you know, there's a variety depending on what people I always ask, what do you what do you like to do?

What do you like to eat? What do you like to, you know, and kind of dive in a little bit more and then I'm like, oh, you like, you want a high end restaurant or you want a middle, you know? So I, I like the Wylder, you know, the Chandlers is an old staple for, you know, you just can't recreate that somewhere.

There's some great new restaurants that have popped up from, like, the Hemlock and Salt Brush, and, you know, there's there's just new, new things all the time. KIN is amazing. You know, I could go on and on and on because really, everything's my favorite. And then and then, you know, the stores, you know, we are lucky to have the retail that we have here and there, you know, the non-chain and you know, just really you know, with that we have Rediscovered Books.

You know, go support your local bookstore. I love them. I seek them out in every city I go to. And and we have a really vibrant one here. I would also say, you know, any of the, you know, Mixed Greens and, you know, some of the clothing stores are phenomenal. I mean, it's just it's you could park for an hour free downtown.

I mean, I would just I think a lot of people sometimes avoid a downtown, you know, but I think, you know, you could really get you could find parking. Yeah, absolutely. You can you can find free parking. You just ask me. Yeah. My brother and my husband and I are cheap, so we're always like, what? Park out and walk.

And it's a very walkable city too. That's the lovely part about that as well. All the things you just mentioned, by the way, were not around when I was a kid when things felt frumpy. You're here. So there are definite benefits to where we are as a city now. And and what you just named are the very things that I think make Boise so wonderful right now.

You know, we kind of, I think feel our way through the growth part of it to knowing that we have these awesome things that that have come that have happened because of it. So yeah. Good stuff. Okay. We're going on to the next question here. How about a recent event or experience that reminded you why you love the city?

Well, I mean, we already talked a little bit about Jaialdi, but what makes one of the things that makes Boise so special is that strong connection to the Basque community. And, you know, some of the things I got to experience, this last week was the relationship between Biscay, where Bilbao and Guernica is, and, and Boise and the government coming here and just, you know, the pride of the two.

And just it's just, you don't see that in a lot of. And it's an unexpected thing that, I'm so glad they celebrate every year with San Ignacio, but then every five years, you know, with a festival like that, I mean, it was huge. It was big. I think people forget because it's been ten years. Yeah, it's a big event.

But I just love that connection to the Basque culture. Yeah, it's very unique. I love it, too. All right. How about a podcast or a book or even a quote that has stuck with you? Oh, boy. I would say, like here locally, I do like to listen to, Well, now I'm going to, I'm going to be listening to Nobody Knows.

Yes. Don Day does a great, podcast, as well as Tommy Ahlquist. And then for my industry, I do listen to a podcast that's called Destination Discourse. Adam Stoker is a friend that, has put that on, and it's a lot of it's a lot of our, like, internal, issues and struggles and things that just, you know, that maybe no one else would want to listen to because I think not really understanding or, you know, relating to to that.

But I do love that. And then as far as, like a health and wellness, I love Danette May. She's just a very inspiring kind of health coach. I’ll have to check that out. Okay. I'm changing up my last question because I learned right at the beginning here that you and I are both going to be, as my husband would say, Freebirds.

So, I'm curious, what what do you think that's going to be like? What do you think it's going to be like to not have any children at home? That is an interesting question. Well, I'm also a newlywed. Oh, so so we just, recently got married in May. My husband and I, And so we have five kids between us, and my son's the youngest, so that is making me—us—a free, a free birds.

We are going on our honeymoon right away in late September, early October to Europe. And so, you know, I see us as, really just enjoying this time together. It just couldn't have probably, you know, and then still, I'm sure there's still some of that worry, right? You never stop worrying as a parent, so you just don't know what they're doing or what's going on.

But, yeah, we're really looking forward to this next phase. Yeah, I am too, at the, at the acute part of it, the actual goodbye of the that that's I'm not looking forward to that. But I can feel that after that it's going to be okay. I think everything's in back to some ways. We're going to blossom.

There's going to be some things that we haven't been able to do for decades. So true. So, all right, so now we're going to, go to the segment that we ask every, guest that we have. And it has to do with one thing that nobody knows about you or your work with Visit Boise or even if it's just something quirky or, you know, surprising or meaningful for you.

So what is something that nobody knows?

Nobody knows. Hmm. Well, I mean, yeah, there's an asterisk there. Someone might know somebody always. They probably used this before, but, Well, one thing I want to do, and this will be maybe our Freebird stage is, since I'm a skier, I have skied seven of the 19, mountains here in Idaho. So my goal is. And I don't think I'll do it in a year, but my goal is to get to all of them. Wow. That's cool. So I don't know if that's a nobody knows. But now my husband knows he's going to have to go with me. He's he's listening. No, that's not happening. That's not one of my bucket list. I know.

That's right. You can ski by yourself. That's I totally I totally get but he skis as well. I'm assuming he he does. He he is, more the, fair weather. Like, it's got to be sunshine. That's me. Yeah. Skiing seems so far away, but the weather is changing. And speaking of which, I want to give the Zamzows tip of the week that has to do with the fact that weather is changing.

So a lot of times we will see people make the mistake of setting their sprinkler system in summertime and then letting it go all the way into fall. And that can create all sorts of issues, because obviously when it is over 100 degrees outside, we're going to be watering your lawn a little bit differently. More water than you would in in the fall when things start to cool off a little bit.

And so it can cause problems with your lawn that it might be unexpected, and probably have to do with the fact that you're you need to adjust adjust your sprinklers. So my tip for you is to go up to your sprinkler system, take a look at it and adjust it back. It probably doesn't. Your lawn doesn't need quite as much liquid as it did in the middle of summer.

And that way you can avoid things like mushrooms and mold. Believe it or not, brown spots can happen when you're over watering. You can grow things like moss in your yard, accidentally. And one of the easiest ways to tell is just to walk across your yard and to feel whether it feels spongy or not.

And if it feels spongy, you probably are watering too much. So just make sure to go and check out your sprinkler system and, and dial it back. Thank you for this conversation. This has been lovely, and I hope people understand a little bit more about Visit Boise after after listening to this. So thank you for being here I appreciate it.

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. So if you enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to follow the podcast and leave a review. And the next time that you're showing somebody around Boise, check out visitboise.com for all the gems that you didn't know are right here in your own backyard. Thanks for listening to the show today and I will catch you next time.