Visit Durango, a nonprofit tourism marketing agency, received international recognition last month for its CitizenLab program that aims to improve tourism sustainability in the city of Durango.
The tourism office was recognized at the 2022 Future of Tourism Summit in Athens, Greece, where it was awarded a place among Green Destinations’ Top 100 Stories, a catalog of “excellent initiatives for sustainable destination development” that other tourism groups can learn from, on Sept. 27, Rachel Welsh, spokeswoman for Visit Durango, said in a news release.
On a certificate award, Visit Durango was complimented for its efforts in “responsible tourism and distinctive appeal.”
Welsh said in an email to The Durango Herald that Durango and Vail are the only destinations in the United States to be recognized with the Green Destinations award, and Durango is one of just three destinations to be honored in North America.
Weylin Ryan, sustainability and policy manager for Visit Durango, is to thank for its recent achievement, Welsh said. He entered Visit Durango into a tourism conference contest under the “Governance, Reset & Recovery” category, and his submission outlined CitizenLab, an online survey service residents can use to respond to questions and ideas pitched by Visit Durango to help the tourism office gauge public sentiment about its marketing efforts.
Residents can also share their own projects and ideas with Visit Durango, the release says. One example is the tourism office’s “County Gems to Keep Hidden” survey, which asked residents what local landmarks, trails and areas should be left off marketing materials to preserve their splendor.
Visit Durango keeps a list of locations, mostly trail systems and natural landmarks, that it does not advertise, Welsh said in the release. The tourism office collected feedback in April and July and weighed the results through September. Now, Visit Durango is sharing the survey results.
The tourism office added four locations to its advertising black list – it committed to not advertising Baker’s Bridge, Hogsback Trail, Pastorius Reservoir and Rico Hot Springs after receiving feedback from eight participants in the survey.
Those locations join Columbine Lake, Highland Mary Lakes, Ice Lakes and Island Lake on Visit Durango’s do-not-advertise list, according to the project summary at https://bit.ly/3Wcf8eT.
Green Destinations, an international sustainable tourism organization, partnered with the Future of Tourism Coalition to hold the tourism summit in September and hold contests in various categories. In its evaluation of Visit Durango, it highlighted “wastewater management, stakeholder mapping, and sustainable destination coordination as Durango’s top performing criteria,” the release says.
“The story is quite interesting and could inspire other Destination Marketing Organizations to make the transformation towards a Destination Management & Marketing Organization,” Green Destinations said in its analysis.
It praised Visit Durango’s use of “traditional methods” like workshops, increased transparency and communication, and its use of CitizenLab to engage with the residents of Durango and La Plata County.
Rachel Brown, executive director of Visit Durango, said the award is an “exciting achievement” and a “good indication” that the tourism office is developing in the right direction.
cburney@durangoherald.com
