Apparently there is a natinal contest for the best Dakotas:  Dakota Fanning, the Dodge Dakota truck, the states, etc.  This year, the North Dakota Tourism Department won second place.

In addition the North Dakota Tourism web site has a news release posted claiming that the advertising money the department spends has yielded nearly $204 million for the state.  From the press release:

A $1.66-million investment in North Dakota tourism advertising brought $203.9 million in visitor spending to the state in 2007, according to research by Longwoods International, a leading travel industry market research company.

Tourism’s return on investment has more than doubled since 2005, the last time this research was done. In 2005, ND Tourism spent $1.2 million on advertising, which brought $88.2 million to the state. Advertising-generated visits to the state doubled from 600,000 in 2005 to 1.2 million in 2007. 

That’s a great thing for ND.  Too bad for all those other Dakotas out there.