Summer has arrived in the Yampa Valley. It’s time to get ready for a season filled with outdoor recreation, art fairs, rodeos, free concerts and visitors to our mountain paradise.
Since 1984, the Chamber has partnered with the City of Steamboat Springs to serve as the Destination Organization for the area, providing visitor and marketing services. The past few years have seen unprecedented changes in the way people live, work, travel and recreate. We recognize that as an organization, we need to evolve as well. That’s why we’re focusing our efforts on Destination Stewardship.
Destination Stewardship is an approach that helps balance the need for tourism with quality of life for residents. It involves enhancing the visitor experience while protecting our natural and cultural resources through responsible visitation messaging and programs to educate visitors.
Destination Stewardship seeks to find the sweet spot between the economic, social and environmental impacts of visitation. On the economic side, the data shows tourism is important to our economy. Visitors to Routt County spend over $600 million each year, and over 4,000 jobs are directly related to tourism. Visitors help pay for amenities we enjoy like trails, Haymaker and even Yampa Street improvements.
Steamboat Springs voters also approved a 9% tax on short term rental stays that will help fund affordable housing for locals. Tourism is a tool to improve residents’ quality of life. But if we aren’t mindful, it can also become a burden. Beyond the significant economic piece, here’s how we’re working to find the balance with the social and environmental pieces of the picture.
This spring, we launched our new campaign, Do Steamboat Springs Right. The campaign talks about ways we can protect and preserve the spaces we all know and love in our region — and it also provides tips to create a seamless traveler experience. The campaign highlights relevant content that inspires desired behavior shifts and engages potential visitors with the “why should I care” at the heart of the message.
This campaign will be targeted at potential visitors living in the Front Range who have shown interest in responsible travel. We’re using paid social media posts, digital paid media, email and our website to get this message in front of travelers.
Talk with us
Tourism impacts the entire community, whether you work directly with visitors or not. That’s why we’re working to bring more visibility to our efforts and engage with residents. The Do Steamboat Springs Right campaign is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to our Destination Stewardship efforts. Want more info, or have questions for our team?
Sign up for the Local Link at SteamboatChamber.com/locallink. In the Link, we share our efforts as a Destination Organization, news about upcoming special events and their impacts, and how we’re communicating with visitors.
Follow Visit Steamboat Springs Instagram and Facebook to see what we’re sharing and share your own photos. Kenzie, our Digital Content Manager, does a great job managing an incredible amount of content, sharing timely information, and presenting the best Steamboat Springs has to offer.
Come say hi at the Visitor Center or Famers’ Market. The Visitor Center is open Monday-Saturday from 10-3, and we’ll be in the Western Welcome section of the Market a few Saturdays this summer. Look for the Do Steamboat Springs Right banner.
Steamboat Springs is a great place to visit because it’s a great place to live and work. And it’s a great place to live because of all of you. Residents are a critical part of successful Destination Stewardship, and we encourage you to share your thoughts with us.
See you on the trails!
