Sharon Doty is really good at talking to people. It’s literally her job; she works for Durango’s Business Improvement District as a downtown ambassador, a role that requires her to walk around downtown Durango striking up conversations with people visiting town.
This is her fourth summer working as an ambassador since she retired from the Fort Lewis College Registrar’s Office after working there for 22 years. With more free time and a life of customer service under her belt, Doty said, some friends convinced her to start working as an ambassador.
“My whole life, I’ve been in customer service,” she said. “I’ve worked in the restaurant business, I worked at Purgatory, I worked at Fort Lewis with students. What I really like about this is that I meet cool people who are happy because they’re on vacation and they love finding out about Durango. And I’m outside all day.”
The BID usually employs 10 ambassadors, who are hired to help visitors during Durango’s busy tourist season, which lasts roughly from Memorial Day through November, Executive Director Tim Walsworth said.
“When they go out there, they are constantly working very hard for their two- or three-hour shift,” he said.
Doty and her fellow ambassadors put on bright red shirts, running shoes and sun hats, then hit Main Avenue, mostly sticking from the Durango Train Depot through the 900 block. They are paid employees of the city, usually retired, and work 1,000 hours during the season. Their shifts typically last two hours, but in that short amount of time they encounter a new person every five to six minutes, Walsworth said.
This year marks the 10th season the program has been in existence, and has been a positive impact on the community, Walsworth said.
“We have good protocols and procedures, and bottom line: Ambassadors are just really good people who love our town,” he said. “They love showing it off to people who are nice enough to come visit here.”
Walsworth said ambassadors make 10,000 interactions in a typical season, whether that be handing out maps, giving directions, recommending a place to eat or even occasionally paying someone’s parking meter. He said the ambassadors have improved the Welcome Center’s effectiveness because of their mobility.
“The Welcome Center in downtown does a great job,” he said. “However, it is stationary. It’s in a building and does not move. Our ambassadors are walking around on the sidewalks, and on weekends out in front of the train depot.”
“I like being outside and just walking up and down the street, and I have just met some of the coolest people,“ Doty said. ”People really want to engage with you. It’s just fun.“
Walsworth said the ambassadors play a vital role in Durango’s tourism economy. If someone visiting Durango interacts with an ambassador and as a result has a more positive experience, those tourists are more likely to come back to Durango or talk to people about it when they go home.
“At the end of the day, when someone has a pleasant experience in any place, they’re likely to tell their friends about it,” he said. “They’re likely to maybe spend a little more and to come back next summer, because they said ‘that Durango place was awesome, they treated me so well.’”
Doty said people are constantly thanking her for her work. Most of the time, she will see people she talked to on the sidewalk enjoying a beer and they will invite her to join them, though she doesn’t because she can’t drink on the job. Sometimes, though, she will have interactions that stick with her for a long time.
“There was one guy that was here for a family reunion, and there were like, 30 of them that came to Durango,” she said. “He had the T-shirt with the family name. He was just very fun. He wanted to tell me all about his family and what they were doing while they were here, and he wanted to give me a T-shirt.”
Doty said that being an ambassador has given her a chance to share the community she loves. She loves using the river trail, she said, and exploring outside by bike or kayak, experiences that she can draw from to recommend good spots to go to curious tourists. Being an ambassador can also teach her about the community.
“I’ve lived here 45 years, and when you are given all this information, I learn new things,” she said. “Restaurants are constantly changing out, businesses are constantly changing out, so every summer it’s different. And every year I have no idea of all the activities going on.”
Durango is well-known for its plethora of outdoorsy activities, she said, but the town itself constantly has new things going on.
You have the paint and sip classes, you have the garden tours, they’re doing a scavenger hunt up at sub terrain,“ Doty said. ”We have all kinds of stuff that people can get involved in. So it’s not just outdoor stuff, it's the music, the arts, the place.“
Doty said that most interactions are positive and fun, and that she is thanked every day. It’s what makes her job so special.
“So what makes the job rewarding for me in that sense that people really appreciate what we’re doing,” she said. “Look for the ambassadors with the red shirts. We’re here to help not only tourists, but locals, too.”
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
