Rodeo Stars “Mobile Ambassadors?”

I found this article on spurradio.com. Do you think individual provinces in Canada should consider sponsoring or compensating rodeo competitors as “mobile Ambassadors?”

South Dakota considers plan to aid tourism with rodeo team
http://spurradio.com

RAPID CITY, S.D. – Rodeo is the official state sport of South Dakota, and two-time World Champion Paul Tierney would like to see rodeo cowboys become something like the state’s official ambassadors for tourism.

Using an already thriving union between the cowboy sport and the Wyoming Travel & Tourism agency as his model, Tierney is proposing formation of a Team South Dakota to get the word out on the state’s many attractions.

“The team could have a patch or logo on their shirt,” Tierney told the Hot Springs (S.D.) Star, “identifying them and the state; they would be offered an incentive for each time they made an appearance for South Dakota tourism.

“This really is a way to help draw some attention to the state as far as tourism is concerned, by partnering with our PRCA competitors. (In Wyoming the cowboys) are basically their ambassadors, their mobile advertisement for the state.”

Tierney, a 2008 inductee in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, Miss Rodeo South Dakota Vanessa Ternes and others were set up all last week in the EquiMedic booth at the Black Hills Stock Show & Rodeo to get people to sign a petition showing their support for the initiative.

Ternes said in a recent speech that each state legislator who has been approached about the idea has expressed his support.

“We think it’s a good idea,” Tierney said. “It puts money in (the cowboys’) pockets and gets South Dakota (more attention) as a tourism destination.”