Oregon Public Broadcasting

The national economic slowdown hurt Central Oregon’s tourism business – but not as much as some feared. And now two regional destinations are trying new ways to draw tourists. Central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey reports.

Who knew!

That’s the recently unveiled slogan for downtown Redmond.

The city is trying to draw new visitors, now that officials  have redirected heavy Highway 97 traffic off downtown streets.

Camden King is the chairman of the Redmond Downtown Partnership.

He says local government and businesses could spend upwards of 50-thousand dollars on publicity.

Camden King: “There’s a barber shop downtown that’s been a barber shop for 70 years. Who knew? Well, there’s a lot of these taglines that are “sunny skies and friendly people”, these sort of pie-in-the-sky taglines. And we really didn’t want to go down that angle, because maybe it's taking ourselves a bit too seriously.”

At the same time, a group of hotels in Sisters announced a plan to target high-end eco-tourists to the western-themed city.

Central Oregon tourism has slowed this summer – but isn’t down as much as other far-away tourist destinations, like Disneyland.