The Durango Area Tourism Office started searching for a new executive director this week.
Bob Kunkel, who heads the group, expects to step down after a replacement is found and trained. DATO, a nonprofit group, promotes Durango and the surrounding area, and it receives lodgers tax dollars from the city and La Plata County.
Kunkel joined the board of DATO when the group was started in 2002, and he was hired as executive director in 2014. The board recruited Kunkel, who was the business development manager at the city of Durango, to bring focus and stability to the budget, staff and marketing plan, according to a news release.
Over the years, the board saw several executive directors come and go, and they wanted to better understand the position. Kunkel found the job requires skills in marketing; tourism promotion; administration, like human resources; and an institutional knowledge of Durango.
He believes the board and organization is in a good position to seek his replacement. The marketing staff, plan and budget is “humming right along,” he said.
DATO recently stopped staffing the welcome center in Santa Rita Park, which allowed it to spend $31,000 more on marketing.
In the future, Kunkel would like the community to continue to work on attracting more visitors from fall through spring because businesses are still highly reliant on the summer season. “That’s not a good pattern for small businesses,” he said. He would also like to see the community put in more facilities like convention centers to bring in purposeful travelers coming for events, he said.
Once he leaves, Kunkel expects to take the summer off and then go back to work, although he does not have a position yet. He said he doesn’t see retirement in the near future.
“I enjoy working and being around people and accomplishing things,” he said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
