During a regular meeting held on Tuesday, Dec. 2, the Pagosa Springs Town Council unanimously approved a sole-source contract in the amount of $35,000 for Blue Room Research to conduct research for the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Advisory Board.
Tourism Director Jennifer Green briefed the council on the matter, explaining the purpose is to address concerns expressed by lodgers in the community over the past year.
According to agenda documentation, “The Tourism Board has been discussing data and how to measure effectiveness for quite some time, with little consensus.”
The agenda documentation explains that Blue Room provides data analysis of the effectiveness of destinations, evaluating tax revenues, trends and marketing campaigns.
Green explained that the purpose of requesting sole-source funding is due to the lack of providers, noting she has not been able to find another company that can do the work the tourism board is requesting.
She also explained that the tourism board would have access to more lodging data that it currently does not.
The tourism board unanimously voted for recommendation of approval for the work during a regular meeting held on Nov. 19.
During that meeting, Green also explained that a letter was sent to the tourism board from local business asking for a third party to review the work of the tourism board to see if “what we’re doing is effective.”
“This company would in fact provide that resource to the community,” Green said, explaining that Blue Room would be an unbiased third party.
Green mentioned that Blue Room will begin by holding a workshop with the tourism board in order to understand what kind of data the community is after, and will be able to customize its research with specifics to the Pagosa Springs community.
“This would also provide a report that area businesses can leverage,” she added.
Green explained that Blue Room has access to additional lodging data that the tourism board currently does not have.
She explained that there has been some concern amongst the lodgers in the community and their willingness to participate in an average daily rate study due to it being perceived as proprietary information.
She went on to explain that if enough lodgers are willing to participate, then Blue Room will be able to use that data in its research but has agreed not share that data.
“So, that eliminates that concern,” she said.
During the town council meeting, Green explained that the agreement with Blue Room includes an exit clause, mentioning that Blue Room has worked with multiple clients in Colorado and around the world and has yet to have any client execute that clause.
Green added that the research should provide an understanding of the data and will “hopefully [be] more useful for everyone.”
clayton@pagosasun.com
