The Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board met Wednesday, Feb. 5, with the board hearing an update from Dave Santucci, a principal consultant of Mission2Mission Marketing.
Santucci’s company has been paired with the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board through the Colorado Tourism Office’s (CTO’s) Destination Stewardship Strategic Planning Initiative that is aimed at advancing destination stewardship and adopting recommendations identified by the initiative.
Santucci explained that he was presenting key findings and recommendations that came out of a community workshop held in Pagosa Springs in November 2024, along with additional stakeholder and resident survey findings.
He also noted that the tourism board is not paying for any of this work, as the Destination Blueprint Initiative is being funded through the CTO.
“All this is covered by the CTO,” he said.
Santucci explained that part of the scope of his work with the board is to provide a destination assessment in order to “really understand what’s going on in the community.”
He also noted that 100 consulting hours are covered by CTO to work on advancing initiatives.
Santucci went on to mention that he has helped with 50 community assessments across the state in the last three years.
“So, we have a lot of data,” he said, explaining that seven priorities have been identified by the CTO from those 50 communities and four specific priorities were identified through the Pagosa Springs workshop.
Those four priorities are advancing off-peak season tourism, championing the value of tourism, promoting local businesses and experiences, and developing/enhancing visitor experiences, Santucci explained.
He went on to describe the information gathered from resident surveys as a “yellow light” noting that, “more respondents agree that tourism is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction.”
Santucci also mentioned that there was a “chunk” of respondents who said tourism is not moving in the right direction, as well as a percentage that was unsure.
“It’s not a red light,” he said, describing the results from the resident survey as a “yellow light,” noting that as a caution to the tourism board.
Santucci also specifically noted that responses from the survey indicate that the majority of residents are “good with growth in winter, spring and fall,” but feel the community is at capacity for summer and holidays.
“When we look at the stakeholder interview, it’s a different story,” Santucci said, explaining that businesses have an interest in growing tourism as well as the community.
Some of the top concerns voiced by business owners include impacts from the upcoming reconstruction project of U.S. 160 through downtown, Santucci mentioned, noting that tourism is essential for local businesses.
Business owners were “generally positive about their businesses and their outlook over the next year,” he added.
Santucci went on to explain that a common finding across residents and business owners is that “they’re more aware of [the tourism board’s] efforts to market the community than they are to manage tourism,” noting this as one of the biggest takeaways from the community assessment.
Santucci also noted that businesses are concerned about the “sentiment” against tourism in the community and that there is a percentage of residents who feel tourism is not good for the community.
For this reason, Santucci suggested that championing the value of tourism is a top priority for the tourism board to focus on in order to address the “mixed signal” of residents cautioning against growing tourism and business owners who are ready for more business.
Santucci commented that residents “don’t understand the management efforts that you have towards tourism as a board and what you do to invest in the community,” noting there is a “very negative” group of residents in regard to tourism in the community.
He noted that business owners are also unaware of the tourism board’s efforts to manage tourism, expressing similar concerns as residents.
Santucci explained that with the recent hot topic of preventing wildfire disasters, that is one way the tourism board could work to show how it is managing tourism with its efforts in promoting safety messages to both visitors and residents to make sure people are educated before recreating in the national forest.
Santucci also explained that he plans to audit the communication challenges the tourism board currently has in engaging residents in the community and intends to “beef up” communication channels.
“That helps champion the value of tourism efforts that you all do,” he said.
Event funding
During the same meeting, the tourism board voted unanimously to approve a total of $50,750 in event funding that will contribute to nine community events planned throughout the summer.
Those events include a farmers market, multiple concerts, a disc golf tournament, an education series at Chimney Rock, a river rafting event and other community fundraising events.
clayton@pagosasun.com
