The South Dakota Department of Tourism has been working with East West Marketing, a China-based company for about a year. According to Elfie Yang of East West, South Dakota possesses natural outdoor resources which can be attractive to a targeted Chinese audience. South Dakota also attracts the audience who is interested in the old Western culture of the US." In addition to Rushmore, "we promote South Dakota in the China market (and) Chinese readers know more about South Dakota," said Yang. Dorn said South Dakota saw nearly 14 million tourists in 2016 and visitor spending totaled about $3.88 billion.