Specializing in the way forward for Aspen tourism | Information

The Aspen Chamber Resort Association has partnered with Destination Think consultant to develop new destination marketing strategies based on the principles of regenerative tourism.

“They are focused on regenerative tourism and trying to restore what may have been lost in a community,” said Eliza Voss, vice president of destination marketing at ACRA, of Destination Think. “That can affect social, cultural or ecological aspects.”

Destination Think was founded in 2009 and has since worked with companies around the world including Tourism Bay of Plenty in New Zealand, the European Travel Commission and Wonderful Copenhagen, which is the Danish capital’s official tourism organization.

“Our Copenhagen strategy was … ‘The end of tourism’. And next it went viral around the world, “Destination Think chief strategist William Bakker said during the ACRA board meeting on Tuesday. “We wanted to say that Copenhagen no longer wants to host tourists – they want – to host temporary locals.”

By temporarily naming its visitors instead of tourists, Copenhagen hoped these people would forego the disruptive behavior sometimes associated with tourism in European cities.

“We’re going to call them ‘locals for a while’, we’re going to treat them like locals for a while and want them to behave like locals for a while,” said Bakker, referring specifically to the work at Destination Think in Copenhagen.

Destination Think is headquartered in Vancouver with offices in Amsterdam, Austin and Sydney.

“We only work with destinations,” said Rodney Payne, CEO of Destination Think, at the board meeting. “We’re pretty boutique. We are a privately held company. We’re really looking for … the best and most impactful work we can do. “

A lodging tax levied by the City of Aspen to aid the resort community’s marketing efforts will fund the project with approximately US $ 123,000.

“It’s not a campaign,” said Voss of ACRA’s upcoming project with Destination Think. “The end goal is a destination management plan.”

According to Voss, Destination Think will begin work on Aspen’s destination management plan from next week and hopes to complete the project by January 2022.

Voss said Destination Think’s values ​​were similar to ACRA and the Aspen community in general, which made them a desirable candidate for completing the job.

Aspen Mayor Torre spoke about the need for a “community-based approach” to destination marketing, saying the city’s popularity is not without its unique challenges.

“I really just want to advocate a community-based approach that really takes into account what our valley can handle and where we want to go as a community and resort,” said Torre at the meeting. “We’ve always talked about some sort of dichotomy, but this is an opportunity … more than ever for us to work together, and I really hope so [points] will be considered.”