Tourist gold for Silver Trails

A string of tiny wannabe tourist towns clings to the side of U.S.

95.

But tourists traveling from Reno to Las Vegas tend to hop a plane and fly right over them.

Even RVs traveling north from Arizona drive Highway 395 instead.

But mostly, travelers ignore these towns because they don't know about them.

Not only are these towns ignored they're hungry.

Hungry for the tourist dollar.

And to attract those tourists, the towns formed Nevada Silver Trails Inc., which turned to the University of Nevada, Reno, for marketing advice.

Each semester, four MBA students at the university are selected to form the Bridges Consulting Team and work under the supervision of Dr.

Judy Strauss.

The students who worked on the Silver Trails campaign were Scott Barnes, Erin FitzSimons, Jim Kennedy and Joanna Lilly.

Their objective: To raise public awareness of Highway 95 and to identify the best target market on which to spend marketing dollars.

The goal: To entice tourists especially northern Nevadans to travel and linger along U.S.

95 between Lovelock and Indian Springs.

The students presented their findings to representatives of the Silver Trails committee: Ron Wolven, Barbara Tobin and Michael O'Connor.

The group represents the towns of Lovelock, Fernley, Fallon, Yerington, Schurz, Walker Lake, Hawthorne, Tonopah, Goldfield, Rachel, Beatty,

Amargosa Valley, Indian Springs, Pahrump and Death Valley.

The Bridges team says those towns should play on their strengths.

They are rich in history, offer low prices for hotels and meals, and enjoy a captive audience, because there's no way for travelers to escape once they've embarked on Highway 95.

However, the towns must also overcome weaknesses.

Places to stop are far apart, distances are vast and gas prices are going up.

But the biggest drawback is that most people don't know Highway 95 is a scenic drive.

Even those who do know find that historical markers are easy to miss.

And, while food and lodging prices are low, travelers find few motels and a lack of variety in restaurant offerings.

However, those wide-open spaces are a prime draw for the class of tourists dubbed "adventure seekers".

Aged 25 to 55, they're young in age or young at heart, the UNR students say.

A good draw for that sector: Adventure races, funded by corporate sponsorships.

Another adventure market to court: Companies that take employees out of the city to build team spirit through adversity in the outdoors.

Even more desirable are the heritage and cultural visitors.

They spend about $200 more than the average traveler $623 per trip compared to $457 for all US travelers.

Heritage tourists seek historical sites and want to learn something.

In short, they want a historical experience.

"You have what people want," the students told the Silver Trails committee.

They recommended applying for grants earmarked for restoring old hotels, but cautioned, "Spruce it up, but don't make it over into something slick." However, some citizens in those quiet historical towns don't fancy hordes of tourists tromping about.

The students suggested that getting grants to refurbish old buildings to show on tours could engender buy-in from the old timers.

Silver Trails' primary marketing tool is an 80-minute audio CD that allots about five minutes to each town.

John Tyson does the narration.

It will be available for download from www.nevadasilvertrails.com and also as an Mp3 file to play as a guide while driving Highway 95.

And word is already getting out the Web site gets 10,000 hits a month