It’s time to close the books on Fiscal Year 2023, a remarkable time for Park City and the Chamber & Visitors Bureau. Among many bright spots is the success of our incredible Partner Services team.

In the past 12 months, the team led the way in expanding membership, opening new avenues of connection with partners and residents, and broadening our civic leadership.

They were critical to the debut of our Sustainable Tourism Plan last summer and the success of our expanded business survey, reaching out to include frontline workers and doubling our response rate from previous surveys. The data informs many of our FY24 plans.

Chamber Snow Day in March was a winning example of the team’s fresh ideas. A day on the mountain in partnership with PCMR; members, staff and board members had a blast getting to know each other on the mountain — the best spot to exemplify our sense of spirit and community character.

Last fall, our first Community Give Back Day volunteering with the Mountain Trails Foundation for trail rehab at Bloods Lake imbued participants with purpose, accomplishment and deeper love and appreciation for our natural surroundings.

These ideas – and many more – sprang from the insights and imagination of Partner Services Manager Natalie Kohl, Partner Service Development Manager Elizabeth Bolton, Community and Government Relations VP Bob Kollar, and Scott House, VP of Partner Services. Just last week, another team idea, the Park City Business University program, featured a session on artificial intelligence offering attendees insights on this new technology.

Team members were the wizards behind the curtain at our special events, from last summer’s Annual Meeting at Pendry Park City and the Tourism Fall Forum at Stein Eriksen Lodge to the smashing success of the Wasatch Back Economic Summit last month at the Grand Summit Hotel. Their responsiveness to member needs, including our legislative updates and members-only weekly newsletter, is one reason membership increased 11% in FY23 to 939.

Our team is making the Chamber more accessible to the community, too, sharing who we are and what we stand for. I hope you enjoy our Small Town Stories in the weekend Park Record, for example, a behind-the-scenes look at a different local business each week. The partnerships we’ve forged with The Park Record, TownLift and KPCW have greatly assisted us in reaching out, sharing and listening.

Our Partner Services team also helped grow our footprint in statewide legislative, business and tourism affairs. For the second year, the Chamber adopted an official legislative agenda, winning support from the Park City Area Restaurant Association, Park City Area Lodging Association, and the Historic Park City Alliance. In addition, we made excellent new connections with lawmakers by participating in Tourism Day and Utah Chambers Day at the state capitol. We also added state-level board and committee positions with the Utah Office of Tourism and the Utah Chamber Coalition.

I could go on, but whew! I need room to talk about our team’s high-flying FY24 objectives. In addition to increasing membership and launching a new website just for locals and Chamber partners, we plan to focus on childcare, housing affordability solutions, and new programs that benefit our partners and their employees. Our team will also be reaching out to deepen community understanding of tourism, part of building a culture of sustainable tourism management.

It was a year of challenge and accomplishment, and I am thankful to lead the talented professionals comprising this capable and motivated organization. As John C. Maxwell says, “The truth is that teamwork is at the heart of every great achievement.”

The post Park City Pulse: Our team of wizards appeared first on Park Record.

Artificial Intelligence has burst on the scene as a topic du jour as businesses begin to explore its possibilities. Is it boosting efficiency? Improving consumer experience? Does it threaten jobs or relieve chronic staff shortages while improving worker satisfaction? Both? Where will it take our economy and work life? Though these are early days, AI’s potential is tantalizing. Some of the hype will fall away, while presently unforeseeable benefits will continue to emerge.

That’s why our June 14 Business University session at Blair Education Center at PC Hospital will be so fascinating. Presenter Brett Lechtenberg will show practical small business benefits of AI that increase efficiency, cut costs, reduce drudgery, create new customer insights and improve service.

“For online marketing, for example,” Brett says, “you can tell ChatGPT or BARD, ‘Give me the top 10 best reasons to (you fill in the blank).'” Just think, in an instant, you can have the top 10 reasons to shop at your store, to eat at your restaurant, use a specialized product, etc. You get the drift. There’s no doubt that you’ll need to modify the answers, but it’s faster than starting from scratch and surprisingly sophisticated no matter the type of business. Such a list can be imported into software like CANVA to generate “10 automatically designed, ready-to-go social media posts with relevant images,” Brett says. Total time commitment: about 30 minutes.

AI has deeper significance for the hospitality industry, says Jordan Hollander at HotelTechReport. By automating repetitive tasks, AI allows staff to be more available to guests. Predictive analytics can forecast customer behavior and trends, making marketing more effective. AI-powered bots are getting better at personalized service and guest recommendations. AI can streamline maintenance, optimize pricing and inventory decisions, and forecast demand (adjusting room availability accordingly). 

“Additionally, AI can personalize pricing and make offers to guests based on their past behavior, allowing hotels to target the right guests with the right offers at the right time,” Hollander says. AI can also spot upselling and cross-selling opportunities, he adds.

But what do customers think? Do they expect or even want frontline automated service, or do they prefer smiling humans? The jury is still out, though the answer may lie in an AI/Human “working partnership” whose outlines are already coming into view. Chamber partners interested in AI should not miss this event. Register through “Chamber Events” at ParkCityChamber.com

Mid-June also sees us wrap up our Board of Directors election. Ballots were emailed May 30 and must be returned by June 19. I am delighted by the excellence of our 12 candidates, whose profiles are online at visitparkcity.com/board. The top six vote-getters will be seated for four-year terms in July.

I don’t want to get too far into June without saluting everyone celebrating a graduation. From teens to mid-career adults, expanding your possibilities and worldview is always a life-affirming accomplishment. Congratulations! Meanwhile, our partnership with the Park City School District Center for Advanced Progress is giving high-schoolers a shot at making a real-world difference by designing a Mobile Visitor Center — an eco-friendly vehicle delivering tips and advice to visitors wherever they are, helping promote sustainable recreation, lodging, food and entertainment options, and answer questions. What will our student team come up with? Stay tuned!

Finally, a big shout out to Chamber partners Rob and Sara Sergent of Alpine Distilling, the sole U.S. whiskey participants selected to the May Worldwide Distilled Spirits Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. Rob, whose whiskey expertise earned him the title of Colonel in 2022 from the governor of Kentucky, was on hand to speak. For expert gin distiller Sara, it was a kind of homecoming. She received her gin education in Edinburgh and the Royal Gardens. Last year, her London Gin received Europe’s Gin of the Year Gold Medal. Congratulations to this accomplished local twosome!

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Perception is like a scenery painting. Though you paint what you see,

it is still a painting, not the scenery itself.” -Abhijit Naskar

We do our best to represent reality on our mind’s canvas, but we should occasionally examine the paintings of others to see what we’re missing.

That thought occurred to me during a recent Park City Council meeting where several speakers stated that resorts and other businesses are not paying sufficient municipal taxes and transportation costs.

But a look at the May 26 City Council staff report clarifies the picture.

The first thing to note is that resort contributions to city coffers are so extensive the official revenue report is divided into two main categories: resort and non-resort. And the resort category has the bigger numbers.

The report states sales taxes paid by resorts comprised 70% ($28.4 million) of the city’s General Fund revenue in FY21. The General Fund helps pay for services we depend on – police, parks, streets and more. It’s hard to argue that 70% is insufficient or not a “fair share.”

The picture doesn’t change when we look at the City’s Transportation Fund. When federal grants are excluded, resort tax payments comprise 69% of the Fund, $6.1 million.

The report even breaks city revenue streams into categories of ‘resort-related geography’ and ‘non-resort-related geography.’ For instance, the areas designated as ‘Main Street’ and ‘Deer Valley’ are ‘resort-related geography.’

From this perspective, the reality of the picture is inescapable. Of the $1.1 billion in total sales recorded in FY21, $875.1 million – 79% – occurred within Park City’s ‘resort-related geography.’

People who wish to paint the picture differently may say the ‘Online Sales’ category chalked up the biggest total at $270 million (vs. the Deer Valley “resort-related geography” area’s $269 million). However, “Online Sales” includes millions spent on food delivery, entertainment, and nightly rentals. The report offers no further analysis, but obviously much of this spending is resort related.

The outsized impact of our resorts is also true over time. A 2020 study by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute states that without the $1 billion visitors spent in Summit County in 2018, Park City would have collected $31.7 million less in taxes and fees, an average revenue loss of $2.6 million per month. Making up the difference in property taxes would have cost residents with million-dollar homes an extra $13,130 per year.

The Gardner stats don’t account for the tax impact of our 14,000 full and part time tourism-related jobs and the subsequent $554 million in labor income. But workers spend much of that locally, adding even more to government sales tax revenues.

Without a ski resort-based tourism economy, the report says, “Summit County would lose at least one-third of its workforce, over half a billion dollars in labor income, and one-quarter of its total $3.4 billion in GDP.”

That’s definitive.

So, a clear painting of the Park City scene will show our resorts contributing the lion’s share of the City Transportation Fund and sales tax revenues, essentially paying for most of our public services and local transportation spending, while providing thousands of jobs and burnishing our reputation as a world-class ski destination.

There is always room for criticism and improvement in our civic life, but we do ourselves a disservice by painting pictures that distort the scene and distract us from building a sustainable, united Park City. To create the future we want, we must see our tourism businesses clearly – as valuable partners in bolstering our economy, paying for public services, helping address transportation and transit, working toward a sustainable, equitable community, and offering top-notch quality of life amenities for our residents and providing a world-class visitor experience.

The post Park City Pulse: Tourism industry bolsters economy appeared first on Park Record.

Did you know:

Joy Vik of Viking Yurt published a photo book called “When Dogs Dine Like Vikings?”

Earl Foote of Nexus ITC plays bass in the alt-rock band 90 Proof?

Whitney White Kozlowski of The Beau Collective used to do public relations at 20th Century Fox in L.A.?

Sara Sargent of Alpine Distilling has an education in gin from Edinburgh, Scotland, and husband Rob is an official Kentucky colonel?

These are just a few of the info nuggets sure to entertain and enlighten you in our weekly “Small Town Stories” that appear in The Park Record, thumbnail profiles of small business owners whose energy, drive and unique life stories help stamp Park City as home to entrepreneurial risk-takers chasing their dreams.

And yes, most Park City businesses are small — 57% of our surveyed members employ fewer than 20 people and 43% fewer than 10. From nonprofit animal rescuers to chocolatiers, our small businesses are a cross-section of our culture and personality — vivid and warm. Almost all enthusiastically support their favorite Park City cause.

Or, in the case of Cole Sport, causes. Like their parents before them, Adam and Jason have supported dozens of local nonprofits for decades. Recently, Adam asked their 16 managers to pick their favorite nonprofits so Cole Sport could support their employee preferences, too.

Cole Sport’s open-hearted attitude is not unusual. The most common answer survey respondents give when we asked why they belong to the Chamber/Bureau is to connect to the community. Today, Stephen Mackay and Jason Morgan of Old Town Cellars raise funds for the Fire District and support animal rights causes. Foote provides free IT services to three or four nonprofits per year. The list goes on.

Our members named climate change and green/recycling initiatives as two of their top three concerns, and many are laser focused on making a difference. For example, Ben Farquharson of Clockwork Café sources bread from Salt Lake City and recycles plastics, glass and aluminum while switching over to solar energy. For his eco-conscious practices, Joe Saladyga (nickname “Salad”) of Savoury Kitchen earned Recycle Utah’s 2019 Green Business of the Year Award. Ski Butlers’ Bryn Carey, a Park City native who started his business in a Daly Avenue garage, even switched banks to avoid financing fossil fuel companies.

But it’s the human side that I find most captivating, like the fact that photographers Carla and Victor Boecklin of carlaboecklin.com met in a hostel in Medellin, Colombia. Or that Mountain Trails Foundation Executive Director Lora Smith was a hard-working outdoor guide raising four children when former director Charlie Sturgis encouraged her to apply at the foundation 10 years ago.

I love the imagination and compassion, too. For example, Lindsay Ortega of Nuzzles and Co. has a “working cats” program to place active felines needing a home with ranches and farms. “When we give our animals a second chance at life, they give back the love 100 fold,” she says. Doesn’t that make you say, “Awwwwwww?”

So, the next time you see Katy Heddens of Black Diamond Gymnastics, ask about her daughter on Auburn’s track and field team. Or find out how Saladyga discovered Park City because he lost a bet. Or get Jenn Silva at the Egyptian Theatre to tell you how she managed to cast her dog in one of their productions.

Hopefully, you will find the sagas behind our Saturday “Small Town Stories” entertaining — and always inspiring.

Park City Pulse is a biweekly feature from Jennifer Wesselhoff, president and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau.

The post Park City Pulse: The stories behind Park City’s small businesses appeared first on Park Record.

“We’re packed,” Park City Council member Becca Gerber told Park City Mountain Resort Chief Operating Officer Mike Goar at the Feb. 16 meeting to address recently expressed concerns about overcrowding. The council did a good job voicing community concerns about traffic congestion, parking, impacts to neighborhoods and overall visitor/resident experiences at our city’s largest ski resort. For all of us who live here, work here and love Park City, traffic and parking problems seem to be worsening. What used to be a holiday concern now seems to be a daily occurrence.

Skiing, it goes without saying, defines the Parkite lifestyle, and we’re keenly sensitive to changes to our experience on the slopes. At the same time, people naturally connect complaints at PCMR with other concerns associated with overdevelopment, “corporatization” or “Disneyfication.” Similar concerns are popping up in small communities around the country.

Traffic and parking are complex issues whose solutions take time to identify and implement. Impatience is understandable when our beloved town seems to be bursting at the seams. Waiting in long lines, feeling you’re dodging people on the slopes, in the grocery store, in parking lots and on the road is frustrating.

It is just as natural to take it out on the most prominent corporate entity around — and that means PCMR. But is that fair? Our heavy traffic and large crowds are not necessarily due to one company’s activities. Data shows our frustration may be getting the better of literal reality. Goar told the council that visitation is similar to past years, that PCMR has set no new peak day records this season and that the resort now has more lifts operating than any ski resort in North America — even though not all lifts are open.

One of the things I love about Park City is our positive, tolerant and gracious culture. We love to support each other and solve problems together. Avoiding negativity while working as one seems to be the way we are. We should keep that wonderful attribute top of mind when things get heated. Our issues require cooperation, not conflict, to achieve solutions we can all accept.

Rather than place blame, I can think of a dozen better ways Parkites address challenges: collaboration, partnership, mutual respect, innovation, thoughtfulness, kindness and shared love of community. We may not recognize that by targeting a specific corporation for criticism, we inadvertently take aim at the thousands of people who work there and are doing their best — our friends, our neighbors, our community.

I listened carefully to Mike’s comments at the meeting, and I’m convinced PCMR is doing its best to be a community partner as well as an economic driver. As Mayor Nann Worel said, “The way forward is a solutions-oriented partnership with the emphasis on partnership.” Partnership requires everyone to contribute to the conversation and welcome PCMR’s efforts to be part of the solution. Negativity does not get us there.

Since I arrived in Park City 18 months ago, I have found many role models — people whose love for nature and the outdoors, for our environment and wildlife, finds expression in their caring attitude toward their fellow humans.

Following their example, let’s strive to be grateful for all we have, thankful for the hard-working people who come in every day, respectful towards everyone and committed to bringing a positive voice to the search for solutions. It’s just the Park City way.

Park City Pulse is a biweekly feature from Jennifer Wesselhoff, president and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau.

The post Park City Pulse: Help be part of the solution appeared first on Park Record.

In my last piece, I introduced the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s assessment of Park City and Summit County, revealing how we scored in two of four sustainability categories. For six months beginning last July, the GSTC measured our region against dozens of sustainable tourism criteria with a holistic perspective — reviewing governance, economic benefits, cultural and heritage preservation, environmental performance and more. The result is an overview of current good practices and areas we can improve.

After grouping indicators into four categories, the GSTC gives us an overall “good” score in Environmental Sustainability (12 indicators), seeing us as “excellent” in protecting environment, energy conservation, water quality, wastewater management and controlling light pollution.

In Destination Stewardship Management (11 indicators), we were rated “needs improvement.” This is no surprise since the need for a Sustainable Tourism Plan is why we asked for the GSTC’s assessment. Among the indicators in this category, they found us to be “excellent” in climate change adaptation and promotion/information for visitors, but note we need to improve in visitor engagement as well as monitoring visitor volume and activities.

Today, I’ll turn to the remaining two categories.

• Cultural sustainability: — Score: needs improvement

This was our lowest-rated category. We scored well in offering visitors cultural experiences (such as a wide variety of events), monitoring access to heritage sites, protecting or rehabbing natural and cultural areas, and collaborating to produce well-researched interpretive material. But we need improvement in several areas. We scored very low in listing our cultural assets and evaluating them for vulnerability, although the report notes that Park City has a plan to improve the downtown historic district. The GSTC suggests the county work with local organizations to document vulnerability at county-located cultural sites and monitor the impact of tourism.

Although our Summit County Heritage and Landmark Commission surveys and inventories significant sites and supports enforcing state laws, the report notes little evidence that we communicate these laws to visitors and recommends more assertive outreach.

The report also recommends highlighting intellectual property laws in our finished Sustainable Tourism Plan to call attention to their importance to tourism development. Copyright laws grant authors and artists exclusive rights to make and sell copies of their work and to their display or public performance. Clearly, our arts community is a critical element of Park City’s appeal and deserves this consideration.

• Socioeconomic sustainability — Score: good

This was our community’s highest-rated category, with the GSTC giving us a “good” score in 18 of the 30 indicators. We are rated “excellent” in providing skills training programs locally, helping local farmers and artisans participate in tourism’s benefits, providing financing and advice to small and medium-size businesses, encouraging visitors to support local sustainability initiatives, measuring the economic impact of tourism, and practicing consultation, consent and compensation in property and user rights. We achieved “excellent” scores in all indicators related to accessibility.

The report recommends the tourism industry provide improved work and career opportunities and that industry players become signatories to compacts protecting children from sex trafficking in travel and tourism.

There is much more detail than we can explore here; I encourage you to read the GSTC report online at parkcitychamber.com. Share it with your colleagues and think about your reactions to their analysis.

Thanks to Dr. Kelly Bricker and her GSTC colleagues for their thorough, illuminating analysis. Their report and the 2,700-plus responses to our recent survey on tourism attitudes provide excellent data for starting the public conversation this year on a Park City/Summit County Sustainable Tourism Plan, a roadmap to assuring our hometown will be pristine and economically balanced for generations to come.

Park City Pulse is a biweekly feature from Jennifer Wesselhoff, president and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau.

The post Park City Pulse: Where we stand appeared first on Park Record.

Last July, we asked the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, the leading authority on sustainable tourism standards, to perform an analysis of Park City using 38 sustainability metrics that measure our strengths and weaknesses. They reviewed hundreds of documents and interviewed dozens of industry and civic leaders. Their report is now complete.

On Wednesday, Dr. Kelly Bricker, who directed the assessment, will present the GSTC findings in a live Facebook webinar at 1 p.m. I hope you will join us at Facebook.com/ParkCityChamberofCommerce. You can read the full report at ParkCityChamber.com.

So, where do we stand? There are many positives in the report as well as areas that need our attention. The GSTC says we have “excellent performance” in 12 criteria and “good performance” in another 12. We rate as “needing improvement” in eight areas. Three criteria score as “moderate risk” and three as “high risk.”

The GSTC groups its 38 criteria into four pillars. We are doing best with socio-economic and environmental sustainability and need to improve on sustainable management and cultural sustainability.

Today, we will look at two.

• Environmental sustainability — Score: good

There are 12 GSTC criteria in this category. We rate as “excellent” in protecting sensitive environments, energy conservation, water quality, wastewater and light pollution; “good” in water stewardship, solid waste management, greenhouse gas emissions/climate mitigation and low impact transportation.

We “need improvement” in species management/exploitation and visitor management. We are at “moderate risk” in wildlife interaction. We have no criteria rated “high risk.”

The report recommends publishing guidelines that can reduce visitor impact, protect biodiversity in sensitive areas, and guide wildlife interactions/protections while increasing the visibility of these efforts.

• Destination stewardship management — Score: needs improvement

It is no surprise this area requires improvement since the need for a Park City/Summit County Stewardship Management Plan is why we asked for GSTC’s assessment. The report considers our decision to develop a plan, employing the Coraggio Group to engage the community and our hiring of a sustainability director as “improvements” in this area.

Of 11 criteria in this pillar, GSTC rates climate change adaptation and promotion/information as “excellent;” and destination management responsibility, enterprise management/sustainability standards, resident engagement, and planning regulations/development controls as “good.” However, we need to improve in our visitor engagement as well as monitoring visitor volume and activities. Destination management systems, monitoring/reporting, and risk/crisis management are rated as “risk to moderate risk.”

GSTC recommends several actions, including integrating comprehensive community plans with destination stewardship plans and holistic monitoring that embraces the visitor experience, environmental, social-economic and cultural issues.

In my next piece, I will review the socio-economic and cultural sustainability categories and talk about what’s next for the plan’s development.

I’m very grateful to the 2,500-plus who responded to our recent survey. We will have more input opportunities ahead. I am excited to hear from you.

Don’t forget Dr. Bricker’s live presentation Wednesday, Feb. at 1 p.m. at Facebook.com/ParkCityChamberofCommerce.

Park City Pulse is a biweekly feature from Jennifer Wesselhoff, president and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau.

The post Park City Pulse: A progress report appeared first on Park Record.

We and all our partners want to thank you for a fantastic year and wish you the happiest of holidays. It’s wonderful to have a snowy December after a late start to the season. When Santa descended on the Town Lift at Park City Mountain Resort on Saturday, it felt like the holiday and ski season had truly arrived.

I am happy to report that our winter economy is looking strong. Advance bookings for lodging are up double digits for December through February compared to last year, and (fingers crossed) the worker shortage seems to have eased somewhat in our hotels and resorts, as almost 1,200 international workers joined our workforce this season.

The arrival ski season comes as we wrap up the first stage of the Park City Destination Stewardship Plan, a strategy to smoothly integrate our visitors, economy, quality of life and environment. Right now, we want your thoughts on tourism and lifestyle topics at visitparkcity.com/survey. It takes just a few minutes to air your opinions, and they will be a crucial part of the first iterations of the plan in early 2022. I hope you will participate. The survey will be online soon at visitparkcity.com/survey.

Our next milestone is in late January when we release the results of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s assessment of Park City. Since summer, researchers have been busily evaluating us on more than three dozen international sustainability metrics. Their findings will trigger a lively conversation on the good, the bad and the ugly as we move toward a plan for a well-balanced Park City that will thrive for generations to come.

You may have noticed that we’ve expanded our vision of community engagement this year. For example, the Chamber/Bureau Board of Directors took a position on ballot measures expressing support for the county and Park City School District bonds in October. We feel residents should know where we stand on issues like these. The climate, too. In August, the board endorsed the Utah Climate and Clear Air Pact, joining more than 150 signatories from around the state. Though it is not likely we will endorse individual candidates in local elections, I was proud that we cohosted candidate forums with The Park Record and KPCW this fall.

Park City Pulse is another way to keep sharing more with you. I value the opportunity to speak with you directly in this space, and I am always open to your thoughts and questions at jennifer@visitparkcity.com.

As I was getting my feet on the ground as a new CEO last year, I encountered story after story of how businesses supported each other with creativity and compassion during the COVID shutdowns in 2020. These small business owners inspired our “Small Town Stories” feature in The Park Record each weekend, introducing you to the people behind the Park City storefronts. From small-batch chocolatiers to boutique gym owners and even a hometown distiller, we’re helping you get to know the incredible people who run our small businesses, giving back to Park City and helping us thrive.

So, as we wrap up 2021, we look forward to continuing to work together on climate, lifestyle, economy, environment and related issues while keeping you in touch with the amazing people and families who make up our business community. It’s been a fantastic, inspiring year — and we can’t wait for 2022!

Park City Pulse is a biweekly feature from Jennifer Wesselhoff, president and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau.

The post Park City Pulse: An inspiring year ends appeared first on Park Record.

“If we first know where we are and where we are tending, we can better judge what to do and how to do it.” — Abraham Lincoln

Famously succinct, Lincoln nicely summed up why policymakers use modern survey instruments today, especially when the issue is as vast as community policies that affect each of us, such as how we shape the future of a tourism-based economy. Knowing “where we are” is an inescapable first step.

That is why I am excited that the Chamber/Bureau has teamed with Portland’s Coraggio Group to survey your opinions as we begin shaping Park City’s Destination Stewardship Plan, which will create strategies to balance our economic well-being, environment, quality of life and visitor experience.

We selected Coraggio not only for their expertise in helping organizations navigate strategic and organizational challenges. Their in-depth Utah experience makes them valuable partners in this watershed year for the future of our tourism economy. When the Utah Office of Tourism’s “Mighty Five” approach helped pre-COVID tourism climb by linking distinctive travel regions with five national parks, many communities needed advice on managing the visitor influx. Coraggio Group delivered a comprehensive assessment that became the statewide foundation for strategies to attract and disperse quality visitation. The sessions they hosted around the state resulted in today’s Red Emerald Strategic Plan 2020-2023, which names five broadly supported strategic goals:

• Prioritizing quality visitation rather than the number of visitors

• Distributing visitation to lessen environmental impacts and spread economic benefits

• Continue powerful branding that supports local communities

• Enable community visitor readiness, including educating and involving residents

• Improving organizational effectiveness

This plan makes Utah a leader in responsible tourism management; other states see it as a model acknowledging the intersection of the economy, residents, natural assets and the distinctive quality of life unique to our state.

Our survey is 100% online to reach as many Park City stakeholders as possible, including our visitors worldwide. If you live here or have a job in Park City, you will find questions specific to you — such as a request to list three words you want our visitor to use to describe tourism and hospitality here. We will also ask you about your level of agreement with statements such as “I am worried about the impact tourism will have on Park City/Summit County’s natural environment” and if, in your opinion, the positives of tourism outweigh the negatives.

Visitors and businesses get their own set of questions, and some are for all audiences, such as selecting Park City’s top five tourism assets.

You will find the survey online at visitparkcity.com/survey beginning Dec. 15. It only takes about 10 minutes to complete and will be available for several weeks. I think you will find the survey an enjoyable break from your frantic holiday schedule, and I look forward to sharing the results as the Sustainable Stewardship Plan process picks up speed in the coming months.

Park City Pulse is a biweekly feature written by Jennifer Wesselhoff, president and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau.

The post Park City Pulse: Charting the path forward appeared first on Park Record.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are ready for a relaxing holiday with family and friends, not to mention turkey, tryptophan, football and leftovers. As we prepare for a fantastic celebration, I am grateful that safety protocols, vaccines, common sense and natural immunity are enabling a safer holiday than in the pandemic’s earliest days.

Please remember to “shop local” this Black Friday and Small Business Saturday weekend. Your fellow Parkites own and operate hundreds of our local businesses, offering quality goods and services while contributing to a better Park City. I hope you enjoy reading about them in the Chamber/Bureau’s weekend Small Town Story articles here in The Park Record. Buying local is also a great way to sidestep potential supply chain issues while keeping your tax dollars local, where they help pay for the public services we all need.

Recent warm temperatures aside, we are expecting a robust 2021-22 ski season after last year’s record breaker, when 5.3 million skiers hit Utah’s slopes. At the Chamber/Bureau’s Fall Forum kickoff last week, we announced that lodging reservations for November, December and January have surpassed last year’s actual totals, and Deer Valley’s Coleen Reardon said resort preseason sales have outperformed pre-pandemic numbers.

Heading into the holiday travel season, one-third (33%) of American travelers now say that COVID-19 no longer has any influence on their travel plans and overall demand is still extremely strong with 89% of American travelers indicating that they have plans to travel in the next six months. All indicators point to another good year, though COVID is still out there, unpredictable as ever. Our ongoing labor shortage looms over the season, too; you will want to pack your patience along with your gear as some businesses anticipate being understaffed by as much as 20%.

As the new season approaches, we are excited Park City is thinking globally and acting locally to sustain our unique character and environment, and I am proud the Chamber/Bureau is making significant contributions. Presently, we are recruiting for a director of sustainable tourism, a new position that aligns us with local governments and resorts that have added similar positions in recent years.

I’m looking forward to the pending results of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s evaluation of Park City and Summit County, based on more than three dozen sustainable tourism criteria. As the name suggests, the GSTC sets standards for sustainable tourism around the world, from Kyoto to Barcelona to Sedona. We are lucky that GSTC vice-chair Dr. Kelly Bricker knows us well, having studied the tourism industry for 14 years at the University of Utah before joining Arizona State University this year as director of the Hainan ASU Joint Tourism College. The result of our collaboration, which will include extensive community outreach, will be Park City’s first Sustainable Tourism Plan. The plan will guide us in a balanced approach to tourism management — respecting our environment as well as our desire for a unique mountain town quality of life, a strong economy and a memorable visitor experience.

You will hear me talking about these and other topics on KPCW with Leslie Thatcher, usually on the fourth Monday of each month. Our most recent conversation aired live this Monday during the 8 a.m. Local News Hour, and it is posted on the Local News Hour page at kpcw.org. Our next chat won’t be until Dec. 27, when I expect we will have a lot more ski season and sustainability news! I hope you will make a note to tune in.

For all of us at the Chamber/Bureau and on behalf of our 950-plus members, I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving holiday!

The post Park City Pulse: Much to be thankful for appeared first on Park Record.