Snowmass seeks community input for destination management plan

Snowmass looks to redefine its tourism goals.

The town is halfway through a six-month process to engage with the Snowmass community while drafting a Destination Management Plan, which will serve as a road map for Snowmass tourism over the next five to 10 years, according to Snowmass Tourism Director Julia Theisen. 

“I want the plan to be fairly short and actionable,” Theisen said.

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The town conducted two surveys to gather input from the community — one for Snowmass residents, one for tourism businesses. They received 109 responses from the community survey and 54 from the business surveys, but hope to get over 300 responses by the time the surveys close on Jan. 10. 

The survey is on the Town of Snowmass Village website under Snowmass Destination Management Plan. 

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“I would encourage everybody to take one, it shouldn’t take more than 10 or 15 minutes,” Theisen said. 

The Snowmass tourism department partnered with RoadMap Consulting, a sustainable tourism consulting agency, to conduct the research. 

They hosted multiple community outreach events during the first three months of their outreach campaign. 

On Dec. 3, they hosted a “Moonshot” Community Visioning Workshop at the Limelight Hotel, asking residents to voice their tourism focuses for the next 25 years if money were no object. Thirty-five residents, businesses, and community members participated, according to Theisen.

“The commonality of the ideas was around community,” Theisen said. “And it took different forms but it was around a community center.”

Fifteen industry partners also deliberated tourism goals with the town in a Dec. 4 Tourism Talk at Viewline Resort Snowmass. 

“Community was a theme, with things like a community garden, gardens that sustain our restaurants, a dog park, building lakes, and creeks for paddleboarding,” Theisen said. 

Connectivity, housing, and workforce retention, were also points of focus, she added.

The town will continue conducting one-on-one interviews to engage with local businesses and gather their take on tourism. They have done 16 interviews so far, Theisen said. 

During their outreach campaign, residents voiced concerns about the community to visitor balance, Theisen said. Most respondents voiced positive views of tourism, but wanted to ensure there remains a reasonable balance between tourists and residents, she said. 

Additional points of focus included inconsistent services and business operations, dependence on tourism for economic sustainability, creating a good off-season tourism experience, and connecting the town hubs, or “nodes,” Theisen said.

“The residents are the placemakers,” she added, quoting a slogan they seek to follow while drafting the management plan.

In the next two months, they will continue stakeholder engagement, surveys, and interviews with businesses, Theisen said. The consulting team will work with the tourism team to draft a plan as they approach February. Their goal is to launch the plan in April. 

Council member Britta Gustafson requested they gather an additional 10 to 15 community members to engage with plan drafts this spring. 

“I think we need that community voice represented in that space,” Gustafson said. 

Theisen said she feels the process of community engagement has and will continue to be robust, but that they will look to engage specific community members upon council request.

“We definitely want to make sure we hear as many voices as possible,” Theisen said. 

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.