What does sustainable tourism look like?
I recently woke up one morning with an idea about a way to make it happen. Why not have a trolley route dedicated to taking tourists to our local cultural resources, such as the Durango Arts Center, the Powerhouse, the Fish Hatchery, the Train Museum, the Animas Museum, the Center for Southwest Studies and San Juan Public Lands Center?
Local Durango merchants could sell tickets and perhaps provide small discounts on their merchandise to buyers. The cultural trolleys could pick up people at parking lots such as those at the Transit Center, the lots near the train by McDonald’s, at the Powerhouse and the Animas Museum, perhaps even at commercial lots such as Town Plaza, the Durango Mall and Walmart.
This would reduce tourist vehicular traffic and reduce central district congestion. Local volunteers could ride on the cultural trolleys and provide entertaining details about Durango and the cultural sites. The cultural trollies might run every 15 or 20 minutes so that tourists could get on and off throughout the route. The city could subsidize the trolley service to make the ticket cost-attractive.
Finally, the cultural trolleys could be decorated to show off their purpose in order to attract riders.
Just an idea.
Robert DawesDurango
