“The tourist herd has thinned, turning this hot-springs town back into a serene village ideal for preholiday pampering,” writes Steve Knopper, a Denver freelance writer and author of a Moon handbooks guide to Colorado.
“Serene village” may not be the phrase that comes to mind for locals, but snappy writing and appealing photos make our fair city sound like just the place to be in November.
“Day trip Glenwood Springs” plugs the Glenwood Hot Springs Pool, the Yampah Spa and Vapor Caves, Sunlight Mountain Resort, along with tidbits on eateries, shopping, lodging and side trips to Carbondale, Redstone and Rifle...."
(Heather McGregor)
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"Truth goes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is seen as self-evident."
3 comments:
Nice article from Heather McGregor. Glenwood Springs is great for any kind of trip.
But day trippers don’t pay the bills.
Day trippers don’t put their heads in a bed.
Day trippers do what our tourism marketing has done for way too many years.
Line the pockets of the tourism lions. The few bucks that go to a meal out or some light shopping are the reason our sales tax revenues are an average of 3% to 5% less than anyone else in the area and have been for years. Including before the recession.
We keep spinning out in the mud because we keep pumping all of the tourism marketing money into glossy banner ads and newspaper ads that perform at barely acceptable levels. Ski will get good traction this year. Billboards will bring them in. The Mennonites should’ve been treated well a long time ago. Other than that, we’ve got nothing.
Heads up, wake up, listen up. We are at least 12 years behind every resort destination around us. What good is it to spend millions on capital improvements to give us one of the best trails in the state? That improvement still needs to be paid for. With money your taxpayers don’t have. That improvement brings in no cash. Zip. Nada. It doesn’t even come close to the sales pitch council gave to get that trail. Because we advertise in high dollar glossy magazines and newspapers that get little to no return. Some “great deal”.
We have got to invest in capital improvements that are cash viable event draws. Every other community around us is digging in to their own pocket to build it so they will come. Not 81601. We’re way too much of special interest, crony held town. Even when we get day trippers their money doesn’t translate out to anything big in the shopping districts. Our stores are so depleted and so many of our unique ones are long gone. We don’t attract new small business draws because we’re so un-friendly in our high city and county costs, our codes so ridiculous and our business infrastructure like print news, affordable advertising and legitimate, strong leadership supported organizations among the worst in the state; owners can’t afford to open the doors. Not to mention needing to give them credit to spend their good money by not throwing it after bad. There are no incentives to come and set up shop in Glenwood Springs when we can barely attract enough to keep the lights on.
The city has never spent money on a tourism draw. Never. The community center isn’t one because of the way it’s run. We have gimmicks and promotions. The lions feed to gluttony on those and the cronyism continues to roll on wasted ad dollars.
The city has no small business incentives and the support is so political and social tiered it may as well be non-existent for business owners who want their own private life without all the photo ops, social back-scratching and political irrelevance.
Lovely article from Heather. CMNM may keep getting fed, or fat, off heads in beds crony dollars but it is nice to have the change of a legit voice that is still respected in the community bringing us that article.
Too bad we’re just a fun, “viral” pit-stop for day trippers. That just might seal our fate to shrivel on up during this next major recession/depression.
Brings to mind the question that there is so much of this kind of press coverage available in very high end publications, why aren't we cutting back on some of the glossy ad costs, putting that money into events and letting those chamber gals earn the high dollar wages they make?
In this world of digital media we could be paying them to sit there and backlink, blog, comment, promote and optimize for a lot more effect that what we get from CMNM. Why aren't they earning their pay with sitting on the phone soliciting these magazines for full articles?
Even the cost of one month of glossy magazine ad is probably enough saved to get a promo or two into town.
What just slayed us at our house watching the unveiling of the supposedly big deal and new wave of conscious tourism promotion in Glenwood Springs was that everything they're so proud of promoting ...........was free.
Bert didn't cost a dime.
Geese didn't cost a cent.
Fun City cost nothing.
This Sunset promo cost was zip.
What more can be said?
All the promotions touted up were freebies.
Noticed that we are still under 3% sales tax gains and the tie to tourism being called the reason it's so good.
3% gain is lousy compared to everyone around us. Even Rifle does better than that.
One of the few things I see in the budget roll-out for '12 is the 25,000 for improving public relations. We need it.
Meanwhile, send a city rep to go down and really watch where $650,000 dollars of promo money is going and how hard those ladies are really working. To not take advantage of freebies that can gain us just be giving stories and interviews out is crazy.
Never thought I'd see the day when we'd become a play day. With money so tight people are going to make us more of a blur in the road on their way to destinations that have the most bang for the buck.
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