Bart Pfankuch
South Dakota News Watch
PIEDMONT, S.D. – John Carley joined about 100 other business operators in early May for a meeting of the Black Hills & Badlands Tourism Association to preview the 2025 tourism season.
The mood in the room, he said, was "a little muted" compared to recent years, when South Dakota set repeated records for visitors and tourism spending.
"I wouldn't say they were jumping up and down like, 'Yeah, we're going to have a great year,'" said Carley, manager of the Elk Creek Resort and Petrified Forest in Piedmont.
For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism officials across the state are feeling cautious, and perhaps even a bit worried, that tourist numbers and revenues will be lower this year.
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