Jonson Kuhn/The Aspen Times
Establishing an understanding of Aspen residents’ own contribution to tourism woes was a significant takeaway from the Aspen Chamber Resort Association’s Annual Tourism Outlook on Tuesday at the Lauder Seminar Room of the Koch Building on the Aspen Institute campus.
A resident sentiment report collected responses through email lists, social media posts, and owned audiences. In total, 2,020 completed surveys were collected between Nov. 28 and Dec. 16, 2022, and 730 completed surveys were collected between May 30 and June 20, 2023, for a total of 2,750 completed surveys.
Within that report it showed that 84% of most respondents have invited out-of-state friends and family to visit Aspen in the past 12 months. It’s a staggering number that Eliza Voss, ACRA’s vice president of destination marketing,said contributes to Aspen tourism more than most people fully realize. Voss said that while people visiting friends and family isn’t necessarily a target marketing segment, data shows they are less aware of respectful and responsible visitor behavior messaging than more traditional market segments.
“It’s sort of like being in a car in traffic and being mad that there’s traffic,” she said. “So, understanding that even the people that we all are inviting into the community can maybe visit in a more respectful way is important … I may even assume that somebody who is visiting me understands that uphill hikers have the right away but that’s not necessarily true. So, it is just kind of a matter of sharing some of those local tips.”
A visitor profile and economic impact report showed that over 25% of Aspen visitors were from within the state, with the top origin market for Aspen visitors coming from Denver-Boulder (12%), followed by Los Angeles (5%), New York (4%), and Chicago (4%). The Visiting Friends and Relatives segment (25%) were most likely to come from the Denver-Boulder market, with the VFR segment being the longest average length of stay at seven days followed by condo/townhome rental guests at six days.
Another takeaway from Tuesday’s conference outlined a “friction” between resident and business interests pertaining to tourism. In March of 2022, ACRA released a Destination Management Plan, which Voss said was aimed at finding the balance between the quality of life for the residents and preserving the visitor experience.
Voss said that based on data received within the resident survey, it was important to residents to protect the offseason by not marketing during those specific months. However, businesses then respond by stating not enough revenue is seen throughout the full year.
Among businesses that are not open year-round, 72.2% reported that they do not want to be open year-round. When asked why they are not open year-round, the most common reason given was that they do not have enough revenue (44.4%), followed by 38.9 percent who said that there is not enough customers/foot traffic during certain parts of the year.
“It’s a constant balance, there’s this constant chicken and the egg with the businesses closing for the offseason because there isn’t enough business, but then do they want to be open to providing year-round employee experience,” she said. “The data really illustrates that it’s difficult to find the balance between what businesses and residents want.”
Meha Gallagher is the vice president of research at Future Partners, a destination organization research specialist firm that assisted ACRA in collecting Aspen’s tourism data. Gallagher said that the “push and pull” between resident and business interests is far from a unique problem and is an issue that many organizations similar to ACRA are struggling with all over the country.
“I think a lot of destinations in reaction to resident/business friction are trying to tow that line similarly to ACRA, trying to target a more responsible traveler, help visitors understand how to respect the people and the lands that they’re coming here to enjoy because that’s important. That has a big toll and effect on resident perceptions of tourism.”
Gallagher said that during the pandemic, people were observed traveling to destinations and “behaving really poorly” by trashing locations and being generally disrespectful towards local residents, which in turn caused a backlash toward tourism for which destination marketing organizations nationwide are now having to answer..
“We’ve seen other destinations such as Montana launch a ‘Leave No Trace’ campaign that’s resulted in more thoughtful and usually higher spending travelers coming to the destination,” she said. “We saw in the research that residents really do understand some of the key benefits that tourism brings to the area, like new dining options, arts and culture festivals. But lesser known is the economic impact to their personal selves, like reducing the tax burden for residents, which isn’t as widely known, but makes a big impact in shifting perceptions more positively towards tourism.”
To reach Jonson Kuhn, email him at [email protected].