Marketing a Resort Community

Abstract

Located at the eastern gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, Colorado, has enjoyed growth in both tourist and residential traffic. With continued expansion in visitor growth and additional lodging and tourism purveyors, the town's tourism industry needs to work cooperatively to guide and foster growth. Some hopeful steps in that direction are the development of a computerized reservation system for Chamber of Commerce members (restaurants and hotels) and the merger of the chamber with the local Accommodations Association, which was formed specifically to promote tourism. Counterbalancing the push for growth is a segment of the town's population that generally opposes additional development and prefers that Estes Park be left alone. While the town's location and environment give it many advantages over other nearby tourist destinations, a failure to cooperate in promoting the destination may cause tourism to Estes Park to drop off. In particular, hoteliers should pay attention to the growing segment of short-stay travelers without children, in contrast to the current focus on families with children.