On March 11, Durango City Council will vote on a proposed “Tourism Commission” ordinance, the purpose of which is to foster the growth of tourism, enhance and expand the tourism industry, and promote the city as a tourist destination.
The ordinance is part of the city’s incorporation of its independent contractor, Visit Durango, into city government. While the ordinance mentions developing policies related to “the sustainable growth of the tourism industry,” it does not reflect Visit Durango’s “pivot” from marketing to sustainability and stewardship.
In the past few years, two major shifts occurred in response to community concerns about tourism. First, in 2021, as a city contractor, Visit Durango prioritized addressing tourism impacts over marketing (See https://bit.ly/41wpRnZ to view its 2021-22 Strategic Plan). Additionally, city-sponsored surveys supported this change.
According to the article, “Tax survey should have included county residents …” (Herald, Feb. 2, 2023), 82% of respondents placed tourism marketing “dead last” as an “important” priority for the city (Herald, May 4, 2024). Second, voters approved La Plata County’s reallocation of its lodgers tax funds from destination marketing to workforce housing and child care. (Herald, Nov. 5, 2024).
However, with its proposed Tourism Commission, the city ignores the community’s concerns by designating five of the proposed commission’s seats to business interests (lodging, restaurants, Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Purgatory Resort and the Durango Chamber of Commerce), three to residents and one to Fort Lewis College.
When commercialization trumps community preferences, the public suffers. As Paige McClanahan notes in “The New Tourist” (Simon & Schuster 2024), local governments “have an enormous influence over whether the net impact of tourism … is positive or negative." Communities around the world and the U.S. have created responsible tourism initiatives and intergovernmental tourism authorities to address those impacts.
Visit Durango’s website contains a blueprint and language for stewardship and sustainability action and policy planning that the city should incorporate into the proposed Tourism Commission ordinance.
In particular, Visit Durango’s 2024-2029 Strategic Plan’s primary goal is “to increase the positive impacts and decrease the negative impacts that visitors and tourism-related businesses” have on the natural environment, economic vitality, culture, and community. (View the plan at https://bit.ly/41zNR9I.)
Perhaps the city should take a step back and reconsider how it can better balance private enterprise and the public interest. Local businesses rely on a healthy natural resource base to attract tourist dollars. Numerous local nonprofit organizations assist the city, county, state and federal governments to maintain trails, protect water quality, reforest wildfire areas, reseed damaged grazing lands and ensure there are sufficient wildlife numbers for hunting and fishing.
If you have enjoyed native wildflowers and grasses growing along trails or you have walked through burned-out forest and seen new vegetation and trees sprouting, chances are that the staff members and volunteers of local nonprofits have spread the seed for those plants.
If you see visitors camping 100 feet from a stream and packing out all their waste, chances are they met a friendly trailhead volunteer and developed a new appreciation for the area.
These organizations also help city, county, state and federal partners keep track of visitor numbers and impacts so that tax dollars are spent where most needed.
Do we really need a city Tourism Commission dedicated to promoting the city as a tourist destination or would a collaborative intergovernmental organization, such as Visit Durango’s 2020 Sustainable Tourism Taskforce, which included Durango Trails, 4 CORE, San Juan Mountains Association and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, be more responsive to everyone’s needs?
Send public comments about the proposed Tourism Commission to City Council before March 11 to: PublicComment@durangoco.gov.
Leslie Barnhart is a Durango resident who volunteers with local nonprofits.
