TAPP reflects on fewer visitors, preparing for a slowdown

Recession plus budget cuts if ballot question 6A passes

[  By Katherine Nettles  ]

With another solid summer of visitation and spending in the rearview mirror, the Gunnison County Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP) is bracing for a shift in both funding and visitor numbers for the near future. On Tuesday, September 27, TAPP representatives reported on operations, marketing and expectations to Gunnison County commissioners and said they are seeing a change in clientele and taking an approach to marketing that will add more emphasis on Nordic skiing, fly fishing and gravel biking in addition to the long-standing marketing staples of extreme skiing and mountain bike trails. They are also prepared to lose some funding if the Local Marketing District ballot question 6A passes and diverts up to 40% of funds to other uses.

TAPP executive director John Norton said they have found most destination marketing association members in the West are larger than Gunnison County’s, with more personnel and more spent on marketing. “But none have economic development,” he said. “In anticipation of 6A passing, we are choosing to create reserves rather than adding new programs.”

Norton said that last winter was very good economically. “We had our strongest winter on record,” he said. “March was the largest LMD month ever. That puts us much more in alignment with other ski valleys. We’re sort of atypical in that way that normally our summers are bigger than winters. Other ski areas tend to have more visitors in winter than in summer.” TAPP reported that LMD revenue was up 24% from November to April.

Norton said the valley seems to be attracting a higher-end market. He reflected that this past summer fewer people visited the county, but they spent more money per person. “They booked sooner, stayed longer and spent more,” he said. That meant some empty hotel rooms, but relatively stable LMD revenue that was down 4% from May through July.

Marketing director Andrew Sandstrom said the drive market was down, and TAPP shifted mid-summer to target the drive market after having focused only on air until that point. This summer, 6,400 additional passengers were flown into the valley, from both JSX flights and from United Airlines increasing its capacity. 

August and September appear to have been strong on visitation and spending, said Norton, although the numbers won’t be finalized for another few months.

Prepping for a potential dip

As TAPP prepares its next marketing campaigns there is a sense of realism that it may not be another banner year ahead. Norton’s memo to commissioners acknowledged that “We are in a visitor slowdown.”

“We are moving into a recession and we’re bracing ourselves for a slowdown,” said Sandstrom. “So, as we look forward on our tourism marketing side; for both seasons we continue to promote flights for just the reasons John noted. It’s high value customers and it helps to protect the budget of the RTA to make better service here in the valley.” 

Sandstrom said they continue to lean into the industry trend of content heavy, exclusively digital marketing pieces with large distribution plans, and using content that emphasizes land stewardship such as the work done by the Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation (STOR) Committee, CBMBA and Gunnison Trails. “We’ll continue to do that,” he said of the stewardship aspect. “We also feel that part of destination stewardship is our data dashboard,” which includes information on visitors that TAPP then shares with Emergency Services, restaurants and lodging services to better prepare their workforce numbers and schedules.  

For winter, Sandstrom said they would continue to focus on Crested Butte’s adventure/extreme skiing product and add a secondary focus of Nordic skiing. “We are working to open up JSX service from Austin,” he said as one last opportunity for a direct flight. Beyond that would be bolstering the Denver service to open the national market for connections. “We think there’s great opportunity,” he said.

For summer 2023, the focus will remain on mountain biking with secondary highlights on gravel biking and fly fishing. 

“This summer we’ve had great engagement with the gravel biking content that we’ve had, we’re seeing more and more of them on the road,” Sandstrom summarized. 

WCU and the ICELab

“2022 was our largest endeavor in supporting Western State University (WCU) in the marketing that we’re already doing,” said Norton. That support included the new Rady School of Engineering and Western Mountain Sports. Norton said TAPP is looking in the future to add support for capstone projects to the Rady School’s outdoor entrepreneurship program, and they are adding the Blister Speaker Series back to the events line up.

David Assad, director for WCU’s ICELab, said the continual mission is to create more high paying jobs in the county. “That is done through export businesses, meaning exporting goods to outside the county, and bringing money in,” he said.

REI is now interested in the accelerator program, said Assad, and REI may work with the ICELab within its own REI incubator and accelerator. “I think there’s potential for everyone in REI’s incubator program, which is 30 to 40 companies per year, to hear about Gunnison County and how that’s a place they may want to relocate their company to or at least be a part of the community here in Gunnison.”

Assad spoke to how the ICELab is integrated into WCU, including a new fellowship program this year that provides students a way to interact with and shadow with some of the businesses in the incubator program. “Students are there, and even giving input,” he said. 

Assad said the forecast for 2022 is to once again hit all the metrics used for calculating the ICELab’s success. That includes number of companies recruited, jobs created, number of high paying jobs created (newly adjusted from previously providing over $50,000 to providing $60,000 annually for 2022), increasing company revenues and the number of WCU graduates placed in the local economy. For 2022, the goal was to recruit four companies, create 30 jobs, create eight high paying jobs, increase revenue by $2.5 million and place 11 grads locally. The forecast shows five companies recruited, 41 jobs created, 13 high paying jobs created, a revenue increase of $2.7 million and 24 WCU grads placed. 

“For next year, we are trying to build on the momentum we have, and not adding much in the way of new programming,” he said. Norton concluded the update by reiterating that TAPP is building reserves in anticipation of 6A passing, which would redirect up to 40% of the LMD funds toward other areas of the local economy such as workforce housing, childcare and recreation infrastructure. There is currently about $2 million in reserves already, he said. Commissioner Liz Smith asked how TAPP might move forward next year if there is an economic slowdown and reallocation of some revenues through 6A.

“Our expectation is that LMD revenues in 2022 will be $3.6 to $3.7 million,” answered Assad. He said there is about $300,000 not being asked for in the TAPP budget. He said certain investments, such as those in the Rady School, would fall off after 2022 as one-time expenditures.