The Colorado Governor’s Tourism Conference was held in Pueblo, Colorado November 3rd through 5th, 2021at the Pueblo Convention Center.
With over 300 applicants the Chaffee County Visitors Bureau was awarded The Governor’s Award for Outstanding Sustainable Tourism Initiative. This honor is awarded to a project or program, event, or program that promotes reducing the impact of travelers on special places and natural resources in Colorado.
During the COVID-19 Pandemic Chaffee County saw increase visitation to their 567,000 acres of public lands. The Chaffee County Visitors Bureau created the Adventure By Nature Pledge to educate visitors about responsible recreation.
The Adventure By Nature Pledge is an outreach and education project supporting outdoor recreation, economic and visitor growth in Chaffee County by encouraging responsible recreation, stewardship principles and best practices for visitors and residents recreating in the outdoors.
The Adventure By Nature pledge ask visitors to Stay on the trail, Be respectful, Recreate responsibly, Leave no trace while visiting Buena Vista & Salida.
Utilizing a Colorado Rural Academy For Tourism grant, the Chaffee County Visitors Bureau developed responsible recreation messaging that was implemented into the printed visitor guide. This information was also implemented in the visitors bureau’s website.
This responsible recreation content was developed into 15 videos, promoted on social media, embedded into our website and shared with stakeholders. This social media campaign generated over 3 million impressions in June & July. This campaign was funded in part by a Colorado Tourism Office Matching Marketing Grant. The Chaffee County Visitors Bureau contributed $20,000, Buena Vista Chamber Of Commerce $2,500, Salida Chamber Of Commerce $2,500.
This project was lead by the Marketing Director for the Chaffee County Visitors Bureau, Scott Peterson. This campaign was a created as a project for the Colorado Tourism Office (CTO) Leadership Journey, a two-year, tuition-based executive training program aimed at building the bench strength of the state’s tourism industry. When asked about his leadership style Scott Peterson said “I hire great people and get out of their way.” David Curtis owner of 50 West Productions created the videos along with Mike Hagedorn owner of Cloud Level Media.
The Chaffee County Visitors Bureau was also one of the top three finalists for The Governor’s Award for Outstanding Community Tourism Initiative acknowledges an activity, event, or project undertaken by a community or region to promote tourism in Colorado.
Scott Peterson presented at two breakout sessions at the conference as well as graduated the Colorado Tourism Leadership Journey.
