Visit Durango is seeking to understand what sentiments residents have about local tourism and what direction the group should take going forward. The tourism outlet distributed an online survey for La Plata County residents to share their ideas and opinions about local tourism.
Previous resident survey results have influenced Visit Durango’s efforts, said Rachel Brown, executive director of Visit Durango. This summer, Visit Durango identified “habitat protection” and “considerate recreating” as tourism priorities for residents of the county through the last survey conducted in July 2020.
“Because ‘habitat protection’ and ‘considerate recreating’ were such high priorities for the residents, we formed partnerships with the San Juan Mountains Association and Durango Trails,” Brown said in an email to The Durango Herald. “SJMA had a forest ambassador in the Durango Welcome Center this summer teaching people about trail etiquette, Leave No Trace principles, and giving hiking and camping tips.
“We also created the Junior Forest Ambassador program to teach these and other principles to our young visitors.”
The survey results helped Visit Durango craft its Care for Durango pledge, Brown said. The pledge included the general principles of “stay healthy,” ”be prepared,” “leave no trace,” “be firewise” and “be respectful,” which are expanded on at the Visit Durango website.
Previous survey results also contributed to Visit Durango’s projected budget for 2021.
Visit Durango’s 2021-2022 strategic plan, which was drafted last year, shows that the tourism outlet’s expected income from city and county lodgers taxes this year was $379,000 from each entity, plus an extra $250,000 left over from the 2020 budget.
Brown said current projections for 2022 lodgers tax income are $1 million to $1.6 million for the city lodgers tax, $573,000 for the county lodgers tax and $82,323 in other revenue.
Visitation was expected to be down around 15% to 20% this year, according to the strategic plan. The projected budget assumed lodgers tax revenues for the city would be down by 40% compared with 2019, but as of mid-October, the city generated far more money than expected from the tax.
Brown did not immediately respond to an email Thursday seeking more information about the low projections versus the higher-than-expected revenues.
On expenses, Visit Durango’s 2021-2022 strategic plan outlined $565,000 in personnel expenses, $117,000 in administrative expenses and $327,000 in tourism marketing expenses.
Expenses have shifted from previous years because work that used to be contracted out is now being done in-house.
According to the 2021-2022 strategic plan, several services that used to be outsourced to contractors were done in-house and assigned to full-time employees. Visit Durango also prioritized “destination leadership,” “community partnerships” and “stewardship.”
Personnel expenses were expected to increase more as Visit Durango hired for more positions, including a sales and marketing director, sales coordinator and other “future creative positions.” Those positions have been filled since the 2021-2022 strategic plan was drafted, Brown said.
Advertising expenses are shifting toward more digital ads versus “print and other overpriced ad mediums,” according to the strategic plan.
The last resident survey distributed by Visit Durango received about 1,200 responses, Brown said.
Residents can take the survey online at www.surveymonkey.com/r/DurangoResident.
cburney@durangoherald.com
