SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (South Dakota News Watch) – As South Dakota’s visitation rates and related spending keep rising, local small business owners see an opportunity to find their niche in the state’s second-largest industry.
Visitor spending driven by tourism broke $5 billion for the first time last year, according to the latest numbers from the Department of Tourism. The industry also continues to grow, supporting 58,824 jobs – nearly 9% of all jobs in the state.
The tourism industry’s success depends on a high-class workforce. The annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism welcomes hospitality workers, artists, economic development experts and more for a chance to network and learn the latest best-practices for a few days in Pierre each January.
The conference concludes with an awards ceremony to celebrate some of the tourism industry’s most passionate professionals. But that passion extends beyond the award winners to other small businesses throughout the state.
The Ruth Ziolkowski Outstanding Hospitality & Customer Service Awards recognize hospitality workers, business owners and others from each of the four tourism regions of South Dakota. The 2025 recipient from the southeast region is Phil Zea, the front desk manager of the Hotel on Phillips in Sioux Falls.
During his acceptance speech, Zea emphasized the relationship between Sioux Falls and other destinations across the state. “We’re kind of the first step when people are coming west,” he told the crowd during the awards gala in January. “It’s a chance for me to pump up all the places along the way (guests) are gonna be seeing.”
Of the dozens of hotels in Sioux Falls, Zea believes the Hotel on Phillips sets itself apart thanks to its boutique feel and freedom from corporate ownership.
“We have the ability to do things that maybe other hotels don’t,” he said. “We have a romance package, a champagne package, things that people can get extra that are in their room when they arrive.”
Zea believes the building’s history also adds to the appeal. The hundred-year-old building used to be the Sioux Falls National Bank. The original 16-ton bank vault door now serves as an entrance to an on-site bar and lounge called The Treasury.
The vault door plays a role in a story that illustrates Zea’s use of humor to diffuse situations with guests, which Department of Tourism Secretary Jim Hagen referenced in his introduction before presenting the Outstanding Hospitality Award. Shortly after the Hotel on Phillips opened in 2019, Zea heard giggling from across the lobby.
“There were two guys over there. One’s 6-4, the other one 5-6. I’m 5-9, I have no business talking to them,” Zea recalled. “I could tell they’ve been drinking in the bar. How am I going to stop them from pushing the vault door?”
Zea picked up the front desk phone and yelled over to the two guests by the vault door.
“I said, ‘I’ve got your mom on the phone! She said stop touching stuff!’ They pushed the vault door back and ran into the bar like a couple of third-graders,” Zea laughed. “I thought, ‘This is my go-to.’”
Zea appreciates the opportunity to joke with guests, but he also values hearing about their experiences in South Dakota on both ends of their trip.
“I’ve been extremely fortunate to have families that stopped here on their way from the East Coast, never seen Mount Rushmore,” said Zea. “But then (I) get fortunate enough that that same family is returning, they’ve gone to the Black Hills, they went out to Wyoming, and now they’re on their way back. The trip is over. To ask how their experience was, how were the Badlands. It’s just amazing to see their faces light up.”
Across the state, two other hosts share a similar enthusiasm for sharing the state with visitors. Thad Weiss grew up in Hill City, a town bolstered by the tourism industry.
“There was a campground outside of Hill City that I worked at in high school,” said Weiss. “I just always knew that was something that I wanted to do: to own a campground, or something in that business.”
Thad and his wife, Nicole, took the leap into the tourism industry a few years ago, selling their house in order to purchase the motel and cabins. That was in the spring of 2020, the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Those first few months, every phone call was basically a cancellation,” said Thad. “You didn’t want to answer the phone at that point.”
Former Gov. Kristi Noem administration’s decision to remain “open for business” and highlight the state’s outdoor attractions helped stabilize a key industry in a very unstable time, though many communities and businesses still took a hit from decreased visitor revenue.
Weiss said visitors started showing up at his motel around mid-June of 2020.
“Still a quiet year,” he said, “At least we made it through the initial part.”
The tourism economy bounced back faster than others, and the Hill City motel stayed afloat. That’s when the KOA Campground in Hot Springs caught Thad Weiss’s attention.
“The dream was always the campground,” he said. “And so I never stopped looking. I was always keeping my eye out.”
It’s an hour drive from Hill City to Hot Springs, but the family has managed the logistics. Nicole Weiss recently left her job as an early childhood educator with the YMCA of Rapid City to focus on their businesses full time. It’s a move that took courage, especially after a first season that demonstrated the many variables that can impact a tourism-based business.
“It’s definitely more workable between the two places, but obviously that was a huge step,” said Nicole. “I was in my career for 21 years and with the organization I left for 13. And having that solid paycheck, you know, every two weeks was a hard thing to change up. It seems to be working out, but it’s still a little scary!”
Despite the initial challenges, the Weiss family has adapted with enthusiasm. All three of Thad and Nicole’s children help with the two businesses, including checking in guests and offering suggestions for site seeing. All five take care to give guests the best experience possible.
“It’s just so much more than working the desk when it’s a small ma-and-pa hotel,” said Nicole. “You have to put your heart and soul into meeting all the guests and making it more than just a one night come-and-go. They can get that anywhere. A mom-and-pop place is going to be a little more dated and it’s gonna have things we’re constantly working on, so we have to really step up the customer service.”
For his part, Thad still relishes the chance to get tourists off the beaten path.
“I actually really enjoy getting people to see the full experience of the Black Hills, and not just things that they think they know, like Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, but the back road drives and the loops and things like that,” he said. “It’s kind of our backyard, and we’re proud to be here and show them.”
While many in the tourism workforce are born-and-raised South Dakotans, others found their passion for the state over time. Jason Reuter owns Against the Grain, a custom woodworking business he runs out of his home in Rapid City.
“A weird string of circumstances led me to going to the University of South Dakota to study theater, and to be honest with you, for the first three years I was trying to plot my escape,” said Reuter, who’s originally from New Jersey.
That plot was foiled when he joined some classmates on a trip to see the Black Hills Playhouse.
“I describe (the Black Hills) as the grandeur of the Rockies but the size of the Appalachians. There’s something magical about the Hills out here,” he said.
That trip gave Reuter a new appreciation for other South Dakota landscapes, from the river bluffs in Vermillion to the expansive prairies of the center of the state where he and his wife visit family.
After 25 years in theater, including time as the operations manager for the Black Hills Playhouse, Reuter decided on a career change to more easily care for his two sons. He currently works on large custom pieces through Against the Grain, but he hopes to break into the tourism industry by supplying pieces for gift shops. Many of these pieces feature South Dakota landscapes and iconography like pheasants, bison and pasqueflowers.
“It needs to be small. It needs to be affordable. But for me, it also needs to have artistic integrity,” he said.
Reuter was among dozens of vendors at the tourism conference in Pierre last month hoping to network with potential business partners. He said he won’t know how successful he was until later this spring, when most businesses start making orders ahead of the peak summer tourist season.
In the meantime, adapting vast South Dakota landscapes to travel-sized pieces has presented an interesting challenge. By trying to anticipate what a tourist will love about South Dakota, Reuter has rediscovered his own appreciation for the place he now calls home.
“It’s kind of a fun exercise because you try to get back to the first times you were here in the Hills. What did you feel? What did you experience? What took your breath away the first time?”
The next episode of “South Dakota Focus” airs Thursday, Feb. 27, at 8 p.m. Central time / 7 p.m. Mountain time. It can be viewed on SDPB-TV1, Facebook, YouTube and SD.net. The episode includes:
- An award-winning front desk manager at a boutique Sioux Falls hotel
- A husband-and-wife team managing a motel and campground in the southern Black Hills
- A Rapid City artist adapting his passion for South Dakota landscapes into travel-sized souvenirs
This story was written by Jackie Hendry, host and producer of South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s “South Dakota Focus,” to preview the next show. It was produced by South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit organization. Read more stories and donate at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email to get stories when they’re published. Contact us at info@sdnewswatch.org.
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