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Grand County Tourism Board outlines two-year strategy, asks commissioners to maintain countywide funding
Summary
The Grand County Tourism Board presented a two-year strategic plan focused on stewardship, organizational capacity, marketing/branding and destination management; board members and staff asked the BOCC to maintain countywide lodging-tax funding to support countywide marketing and shoulder-season initiatives.
The Grand County Tourism Board presented a two-year strategic plan to the Board of County Commissioners that emphasizes four pillars: strengthening organizational capacity, marketing and branding Grand County as a single destination, supporting local tourism businesses, and leading destination management and stewardship.
Board members told commissioners the plan was developed through a facilitated 'blueprint' process that included about 879 resident survey responses and 67 stakeholder responses. The tourism board said it aims to spread visitation throughout the county, support shoulder-season events and activities, encourage longer overnight stays, and integrate stewardship messaging (a county-tailored set of seven stewardship principles based on Leave No Trace). The board noted it administers grants (about 30% of the tourism budget) for community events and shoulder-season programming and uses the remainder for countywide marketing and staffing.
Board leaders described the selection of a new advertising agency (Madden) after an RFP process and said the agency brings expanded data and reporting capabilities, including web analytics and short-term rental pacing data (AirDNA/Datify) and ad attribution tools. The tourism board said those analytic tools will help measure campaign performance, track website visits and ad attribution for markets targeted outside Colorado (e.g., Chicago, Phoenix) to generate longer overnight stays.
Commissioners asked about the countywide versus town-level focus for marketing and whether other counties that moved away from countywide promotion had different outcomes. Tourism board leaders argued Grand County's geographic and recreational diversity makes countywide promotion appropriate and that dispersal, stewardship and shoulder-season growth are core goals. Commissioners asked for regular, concise KPI reporting relating ad spending to overnight stays, website traffic, and shoulder-season outcomes; the board agreed to bring more quantifiable metrics in future quarterly updates and to coordinate with county finance and management on five-year budgeting scenarios.
No formal funding action was taken; the tourism board requested continued countywide funding and asked commissioners to review the board's five-year planning assumptions and reserve strategy as staff finalize the budget and campaign metrics.
