BROOKINGS — Residents in and around Brookings already know about the city’s amenities, but that’s often not the case for first-time visitors to the community who are here for other purposes, be it business, schooling or potential employment.

Now, however, an effort is launching to give these guests insights into Brookings. It’s called the Brookings Tourism Ambassador Program, and its goal is to empower front-line employees and residents to help extol the area’s virtues to people who, if they’re impressed enough, might attend more conferences in Brookings, go to school here or, best of all, become new residents.

“Really, the key to helping visitors enjoy their stay is making that genuine connection with them and finding out what they’re interested in and then tailoring the many assets that we have available to what they’re specifically looking for,” Visit Brookings Executive Director Laura Schoen Carbonneau told the Brookings Register in an interview.

The program’s first certification class will be July 2. The registration fee is $25, and it’s there will be a monthly class for the foreseeable future. To register, head online to visitbrookingssd.com/industry-relations. Each class is limited to 30 participants to ensure attendees can interact and connect with others.

“We have the next six months of classes available for people to take a look at, and we’re starting to see a good amount of interest … so we’re very encouraged,” she said.

Schoen Carbonneau believes the program will benefit not only its core audience, but others in the Brookings community as well.

“I want to make sure the people understand that, yes, this is first and foremost a program for the hospitality industry, but there are so many people that can benefit from going through the program,” she said. “If you think about all the people who have interaction with those potential new residents or potential visitors because every new resident first begins as a visitor.”

When presented with a scenario involving someone who’d never been to Brookings before, and what might be done to entice that person to make return trips, Schoen Carbonneau made her case.

“A lot of times when we have visitors who’ve been to our community for the very first time, we introduce them to our Brookings Great 8 Passport, which is a great overview of some of the top eight things that you can do in the community in a short amount of time,” she noted. “We also encourage them — if they are planning to grab something to eat or drink or, it really depends on what else is going on in town and what they’re interested in — we steer them in the right direction.”

She continued, “That’s really the whole point of the Brookings Tourism Ambassador Program: To be able to interact with those guests, make sure that they understand how welcoming our community is as well as full of information to help them extend their stay, whether they are here for a meeting, for coming to check out the school or maybe they’re a new employee who is coming here for an interview and is considering making Brookings their home.”

The program’s funding includes private donations, but taxpayer dollars are in the mix as well, to the tune of around $17,000, with those dollars coming from the Visit Brookings budget. Vision Brookings provided help as well in getting the program off the ground. Along with the funding comes a goals-oriented mindset.

“I think, at the end of the day, our goal is to have monthly certification opportunities,” Schoen Carbonneau said. “We have the opportunity to have 30 people in each class — we know it’s going to take a little while to grow into the program, but our success would be to fill those 12 classes each year with as many people interested to learn how they can tell the Brookings story as we possibly can.”

Hospitality staffers, realtors, health care professionals, university staff, human resources personnel — all and more are welcome to enroll in the certification classes for the Brookings Tourism Ambassador Program.

“How do we welcome them to the community? How do we impress upon them the wonderful things that we have available? This is just one tool that helps us tell that Brookings story,” Schoen Carbonneau said. “If you love Brookings and want to know more about how you can promote our great city to others, we’ll find a spot for you.”

For questions or assistance related to registration, call her at 605-692-7444 or send an email to laura@visitbrookingssd.com.

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.