Story and Photo by Jim Larson
She’s got a new job, but she’s an old hand.
Maria Pochervina has been named the Director of Visit Southwest Montana, our region's destination marketing organization, a press release said.
Charming with chops, the new director is a disarming conversationalist who knows her stuff backwards and forwards.
We interviewed Pochervina in the boardroom on the fifth floor of the Thornton Building.
She had already been working with Visit Southwest Montana for a year and a half before being appointed director, she noted. Before that, she headed Butte’s Visitors Bureau at the Chamber of Commerce.
Prior to coming to work for Visit Southwest Montana, she served on the organization’s board, and had also served as the board president, she said.
The regional entity was funded in many ways just as her Butte organization was, through bed tax dollars, she said.Her Butte gig had an additional component, she noted, it also received funding from a tourism business district fund.
Pochervina’s Butte experience made her familiar with the ins and outs of tourism funding, she said, including the rules and regulations.
The new director noted that she had been in the tourism industry for her entire career. Early on, as a hotelier, she helped collect the new bed tax that now funds her position.
The Visit Southwest Montana has a one million dollar budget, and it covers 9 counties.
Tourism in Montana tied for number two as an economic driver.
The organization collects money that supports Montana’s state parks, the Montana Heritage Commission, and the Montana Historical Society's renovated museum. It also funds the University of Montana’s Institute for Tourism and Recreation research. She noted that tourism research had been funded since the inception of the bed tax.
The bed tax is at 8 percent now, and three percent of that goes to the state's general fund.She thought that that amounted to roughly $650 per household.”We are already supporting Montanans," she noted, as she broke down the percentages of where the tax was distributed.
Regarding the location of her region, the director noted that it was positioned between the two national parks, Glacier and Yellowstone, and that was a dilemma she said. While we had “a given on visitors,” we needed those visitors to spend more time here. “We offer that slower, Montana authentic experience here.” In addition, it was less expensive to stay in our region, she said.She joked that in Butte we “needed spike strips” to get the visitors to stop. “We offer the best, she said, the best in small towns, and restaurants, and shopping, and just that slower pace of life.”
Interviewer Jim Larson offered that the area was not just pretty, but had a gritty history. Porchovina agreed “Really gritty," she said.”What do people love about our region. They love the ghost towns, They love the mining, the rock hounding, They love our hot springs, they love our trails.”
She added that tourists already appreciate the state’s beauty, but she said that we also have to promote our communities so that visitors “leave behind a chunk of change.”
In pursuit of that goal, in April, Visit Southwest Montana introduced a new logo for the organization.
The logo was developed by the Abbi Agency. “With the Visit Southwest Montana Brand, the goal was to craft a distinctive identity that stands apart from the other regional DMO brands. Central to the visual identity is a hand-drawn flowing script typeface that conveys a sense of ease, movement, and adventure – capturing the spirit of the region's outdoor lifestyle and breathtaking landscapes., while also evoking a warm and welcoming tone,’ said Darius Mandegary, the agency;s art director.
With a new look and a new marketing leader, the region is ready to welcome the world.
