PENDLETON — A new marketing campaign asks tentative travelers an engaging question as they consider coming to Umatilla, Morrow and neighboring counties.

Are you tough enough?

During the past year, a dozen partners, regional governments and organizations have formed an alliance. They call themselves Oregon's Rugged Country and are distancing themselves from the Eastern Oregon Visitors Association, based in Baker County.

In the past, the visitors association has promoted everything from the Tri-Cities to Ontario. Local tourist promoters don't believe the association is giving them the best bang for their buck.

Oregon's Rugged Country includes members from Maupin to Milton-Freewater and from Arlington to Mission. The group's Web site is functioning and the first full-page ads of a $10,000 print campaign are in slick regional travel guides.

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"We think that this area, this region, is a destination, and can become more so," said Leslie Carnes, executive director of the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce. "We have a lot in common in the Umatilla and Morrow County regions. We want to market this area as one entity."

In addition to Umatilla and Morrow counties and the chambers in Pendleton, Hermiston, Boardman and Heppner, other partners are Wildhorse Resort & Casino, the River Lodge and Grill at Boardman and Oxford Suites in Pendleton and Hermiston.

"When people travel, they don't care which county lines they cross," Carnes said. "They're there for the amenities and the experiences they can get in those areas."

The Oregon's Rugged Country campaign targets travelers from the metropolitan areas, particularly Portland, with the slogan, "It's 3 hours and a lifestyle away."

Kim Michael of Pendleton, area sales manager for Oxford Suites, said she's glad she got involved with Oregon's Rugged Country.

"We have some of the most beautiful country and sites of interest in this state," Michael said. "It is our hope to make all travelers aware of all we have to offer."

Carnes praised Michelle Liberty, marketing director for Wildhorse Resort & Casino, for her efforts on the ads in the tourist guides. The full-page color ads are in the spring-summer issues of Travel Oregon and an Eastern Oregon travel guide.

The publications just hit the stands, so Carnes said it's too early to know the results, but she's hopeful.

Oregon's Rugged Country has partnered with Prison Blues, the denim garment department at the Eastern Oregon Correction Institution in Pendleton. Inmates are making "Adventure Kits," denim bags with drawstrings that will be filled with brochures, coupons and samples from member businesses. Oregon's Rugged Country members will send the bags of goodies to people who respond to the ads and the Web site.

"There's an area, a vast area, in Oregon that is virtually undiscovered by tourists," Liberty said.

She said tourism marketers have a long-standing philosophy of promoting regions by their tourist attractions, but that doesn't always work.

"This area, which we call Oregon's Rugged Country, has not been enjoyed by the traveler to the degree that it deserves," Liberty said. "Oregon's Rugged Country offers the visitor a unique experience — an experience from a nearly forgotten time when people could more easily be welcomed into a community just for the sake of their good company and friendship."

The new campaign will help Wildhorse Resort & Casino and all of the region's hospitality enterprises, Liberty said.

"It creates a brand and an identity for all of our communities, one we can be proud of and which raises the standard of service," she said. "This campaign also targets a certain kind of visitor — the kind we would welcome to our businesses and communities. We're very excited about working together to create this new product and launching Oregon's Rugged Country marketing campaign."

Carnes said she thinks the new approach will be more effective than partnering with all of Eastern Oregon.

"Our goal is to make it different and to make it fun and to capture someone's imagination," she said. "We want people to think, 'You know, that sounds like a really interesting place to go.' "