The 2024 Colorado Governor’s Tourism Conference brought more than 400 attendees of tourism leaders and industry experts together in beautiful Mt. Crested Butte, Colorado. Tourism insights, ideas, and inspiration were shared with attendees, in between leaf-peeping, sipping on Montanya rum, and a hike led by polar adventurer and keynote speaker Eric Larsen.
This year’s conference also featured the release of the Colorado Tourism Office (CTO) Destination Stewardship Plan. The plan highlights the statewide strategic plan and eight regional plans, all featured with additional resources at CTOStewardship.com.
Continue reading for my top three takeaways from attending this year’s conference.
Educating Visitors (and Residents) Through Messaging
A big theme from the conference breakout workshops and general sessions was leveraging messaging to educate visitors and residents. Here are three examples of how the CTO and destinations are successfully educating visitors and staying top of mind.
Do Colorado Right
The Colorado Tourism Office (CTO) is leveraging Do Colorado Right messaging and content as an opportunity to educate visitors and residents about the seven Care for Colorado and Leave No Trace Principles. Outlining how to respectively visit and have a better experience wherever and whenever a visitor travels to Colorado.
Additionally, Colorado destinations can leverage the messaging formula by working with the CTO Destination Development team to tailor a Do Colorado Right campaign for their specific destination’s challenges and needs.
For example, Visit Ouray developed the Do Ouray Right campaign, focusing on relevant principles like Slow Down & Enjoy or Choosing a Campsite. By developing their own unique principles, Ouray is better able to educate visitors about specific ways to safely and respectively visit to have a better overall experience.
Michelin Guide Colorado
In 2023, the CTO announced the Michele Guide Colorado, as the latest in their legendary Michelin Guide locations. “Colorado has a dynamic culinary scene — one that’s perfect for the Michelin Guide,” shared Gwendal Poullennec, the International Director of the Michelin Guides, at the time of the launch.
As part of the program, the CTO has been promoting the guide through media, events, and advertising. Coloradans who saw ads promoting the Michelin Guide Colorado identified local cuisine as excellent. Indicating that celebrating the culinary experiences available in Colorado, can increase visitation and improve resident perspective as well.
Campaign Advertising is Keeping Colorado Top of Mind
The Visit Colorado marketing team implements year-round seasonal advertising campaigns to increase potential visitors, highlight unique destination assets, and increase the number of visitors YoY.
From their advertising efforts, according to their partner SMARTInsights, the 2023 campaigns increased awareness among snow-bound households by 3% YoY. Their combined campaign efforts generated a 6.1% travel increment, influencing more than 741,000 trips.
19 Travel Trends According to Prominent Freelance Travel Journalists
As part of the Colorado Governor’s Tourism Conference programming Handlebar PR, the CTO’s PR agency of record hosted a PR media panel featuring five outdoor and adventure freelance writers and editors.
The panel shared travel trends, first-hand experiences, pitching tips, and how they’re leveraging AI. Continue reading for the 19 travel trends the panel highlighted.
19 Travel Trends to Leverage in Pitches
- Sustainable tourism, especially over-tourism, how DMOs are managing visitors, ways to travel more sustainably, visiting places that need sustaining, and low-impact travel
- Outdoor adventure, and starting considering publications that didn’t historically post outdoor content
- Quality time in the outdoors, especially with a strong focus on nature
- The unexpected, hidden gems and off-the-beaten path
- Awe; people are looking for awe-inspiring travel adventures, an antidote to anxiety and depression
- Using superlatives, for example, the highest, biggest, largest, best
- Travel pegged to an event, for example, the Leadville 100
- Accessible adventure, for whom and what
- 36 hours in a destination
- What’s new in a destination
- Places to see while traveling to the destination
- Guided adventures are taking off in the U.S., for example, this Hut-to-Hut Hike New York Times article
- Travel with purpose, theme, or reason
- Unique destination details, especially things related to traditions or culture
- Travel and retreats for longevity or to Blue Zones
- Regenerative travel
- Indigenous travel
- Set jetting, travel related to where movies were filmed
- Multigenerational active travel
How to Engage the Community & Its Assets
Promoting a destination is a community effort. By highlighting the assets or products that make your location unique, you’ll find more opportunities to connect with residents and partners, while authentically promoting your destination to visitors.
As part of the Colorado Governor’s Tourism Conference, one workshop session featured three destinations that are successfully engaging their communities and leveraging unique assets.
Gravel Adventure Field Guide
On Colorado’s Southern border, the town of Trinidad can sometimes be overlooked as a destination to visit. Conveniently located on I-25, visitors often drive through the area on their way to a destination.
Blending the gravel bike riding trend with Trinidad’s abundance of gravel travels, Juan Dela Roca, launched the Gravel Adventure Field Guide for Trinidad and Las Animas County in April 2021. As a resource for residents and visitors, the guide highlights facts about the area, history, partners, and gravel trails. And inspires people to get out, discover, and get excited about Trinidad.
The Roaring Fork + Farm Map
The Roaring Fork Valley is home to iconic Colorado mountain locations including, Glenwood Springs, Aspen, Snowmass, Carbondale, and Basalt. However, few visitors know that the Roaring Fork Valley has deep agricultural roots.
Working together as the Roaring Fork Valley Destination Alliance, the five destinations created The Roaring Fork + Farm Map. The five-month project incorporated stakeholders and partners to develop a visitor guide highlighting farm-to-table restaurants, ranches, and agricultural experiences unique to the valley.
Tarantula Tourism
Each fall, a large number of tarantulas complete a mating journey outside the town of La Junta in Colorado’s Canyons and Plains region. The area is home to the Comanche National Grassland, the ideal spot for female tarantulas to make burrows and start family planning.
Working with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Visit La Junta has created an annual celebration complete with tours and a parade to inspire visitors and residents to experience the unique asset their destination has to offer. Focusing on tarantula tourism has created a sustainable and educational opportunity to help visitors safely experience the annual tarantula trek.
Your Biggest Takeaway at the 2024 Colorado GovCon
I’m only one person and sadly couldn’t attend all the sessions. Did you attend the 2024 Colorado Governor’s Tourism Conference? I’d love to hear your key takeaways. Share them below in the comments or send me a note.