North Dakota's state parks and campgrounds have been neglected for years, and need improved facilities to help draw tourists and encourage them to stay longer, Democratic governor candidate Joe Satrom says.

Better bathrooms and showers, paved parking lots and interpretive centers would help encourage tourism in rural areas, and make the state more attractive for birdwatchers and other nature tourists, Satrom believes.

"Public investment in parks and campgrounds, hiking trails, museums (and) historic sites become sort of the pieces of a puzzle in the development of tourism in a region, and we are not doing a coordinated job of developing our potential there," Satrom said at a news conference in Bismarck on Thursday.

Gov. John Hoeven said his administration has made rural tourism a priority, and Sara Otte Coleman, the state tourism director, said a conference last year was devoted to the subject. Since then, a plan to encourage outdoor tourism has been drafted.

"Nature and rural tourism is an important part of our tourism mix," Coleman said. "We know it has tremendous impact for rural North Dakota."

She said she was not aware of tourist complaints about state park conditions. "In our general surveying, that has not been a red flag," she said.

Satrom was state tourism director in the administrations of former Democratic Govs. William Guy and Arthur Link. He and his wife, Katherine, own a Bismarck travel and tour agency that they founded in 1978.

Satrom is a former chairman of the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, which developed the southwestern Badlands community of Medora into a leading attraction.

He said his administration would emphasize improvements to parks and campgrounds, and development of scenic roads and hiking trails in some regions, including the Sheyenne River valley, the wooded Pembina Gorge in the state's northeast corner, and the Killdeer Mountains in the west.

Satrom said he believes the Devils Lake region, with its fishing lake, the Spirit Lake Nation reservation and historic sites, has the potential to become North Dakota's top tourist attraction.

"It has a genuine lake environment, with tremendous wildlife. It has the cultural attractions of the Spirit Lake tribe. It has access to significant populations. It has an exciting history," Satrom said. "We've got one of the great forts in the country that needs restoration there, Fort Totten."

Coleman said a study is under way to identify potential locations for nature trails in the Pembina Gorge and Turtle Mountains regions.

The state and the National Park Service are cooperating to extend the Maah Daah Hey Trail in southwestern North Dakota, Coleman said. The trail stretches for 96 miles through the north and south units of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and may be used for biking, horseback riding and hiking.

Satrom said he did not know what his tourism program would cost, and suggested it could be financed from Bank of North Dakota profits. Much of the state-owned bank's earnings is spent on state government operations, rather than permanent improvements to facilities, he said.

"We should not accept as a premise for not talking about things, the idea that things cost too much, or that we can't even afford them," he said. "The payback is huge, because this is an area of our economy where we can bring dollars to every facility, every town, every community and every participating business … Tourism is good for everybody."

Hoeven said Satrom has suggested relying on bank profits for a number of uses, including economic development and water projects.

"I think you do have to tell the people of North Dakota how you're going to pay for your proposals, and in my opponent's case, he's used Bank of North Dakota profits now many times," Hoeven said.