Grand County, Colorado Tourism Revitalization Plan

The Grand County Tourism Revitalization Strategy is a project aimed at creating a resilient framework that will position Grand County to pursue job and revenue-generating activities, augment the tourist-centric activities and businesses with year-round resources, and to highlight lesser-known activities that help spread economic impacts to other local communities.

The Grand County Economic Development Department (GCED) applied for and secured a $400,000 grant from the Economic Development Administration (EDA) to fund the creation of this strategy. This is being matched by $100,000 from Grand County Tourism for a total project cost of $500,000.

The tourism industry has been notoriously difficult to track due to its diverse nature and how seasonality affects things like jobs, workforce, and housing. For many communities throughout the nation that rely on the tourism industry, it is vital that strategies are in place to help mitigate negative economic impacts caused by events that may be out of a community’s control such as the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation program invested $750 million in American Rescue Plan funding to support these communities rebuild the travel and tourism sector by creating a more equitable, competitive, and resilient industry. The EDA’s funding is expected to generate $1.1 billion in private investment and create or save over 10,000 jobs.

The EDA recognizes that tourism is a significant economic driver for Grand County and implementing strategies that aid in the revitalization and protection of this industry—such as extending tourism throughout the year—will create stable, year-round jobs and business opportunities and help stabilize the County should future disasters and/or pandemics arise.

The GCED chose Antero Group, an urban planning, civil engineering, and strategic consulting firm with a reputation for creating vibrant places; facilitating economic development; and cultivating innovative and sustainable communities. With offices in Colorado, Illinois, and Texas, Antero has extensive experience working with the EDA on multiple projects in these regions with a solid performance record.

Also assisting with the project is Headwaters Trails Alliance, which brings extensive knowledge about natural recreation activities in Grand County.

While other plans and projects have looked at sustainability and identifying other growth opportunities for Grand County, the Tourism Revitalization Strategy is aimed at understanding the underlying economic impacts of seasonality on the many tourism activities that form Grand County’s economic engine and identifying and recommending strategies to better spread those impacts—both geographically and seasonally.

This project is anticipated to take approximately 24 months (2 years) to complete.

Antero Group has proposed multiple public meetings and outreach strategies to ensure both public and private entities are well-informed and have vital input into the development of the strategies and recommendations. These include:

1. Kickoff Public Meeting: The Project Team will present an informational session to introduce the Project to the public.
2. Project Status Public Meeting: The Project Team will present preliminary findings and solicit additional public feedback.
3. Final Meeting: The Project Team will present the final plan and next steps.

Additional meetings will be established with key stakeholders to aid in data collection and provide guidance to the Project Team on all aspects of the Project. Additionally, a tourism survey will be developed to help identify disaster preparedness, response activities, and actions taken by various types of businesses.

The aim of this strategy is to diversify and protect the vital tourism industry from future natural disasters, not necessarily to increase the amount of tourism. As was seen with the pandemic and wildfires, tourism to Grand County can be drastically affected when events occur that are out of the County’s control. Preparation of a plan and strategies to better weather these crippling events will be key to reducing the negative economic impacts that can occur.