Visit Estes Park has extended the deadline for community members to weigh in on a Resident Sentiment Survey. The survey seeks feedback on how tourism affects the people who live in the Estes Valley and what should be prioritized to ensure tourism grows in a way that is sustainable, inclusive, and beneficial for the community.
Participants who take the 10-minute online survey will be eligible to win a $250 gift certificate to any Estes Valley business of the winner’s choice.
The survey is part of VEP’s Tourism Master Plan which will provide a community-driven roadmap to guide sustainable growth and tourism development in the Estes Valley.
VEP will also host a Summer Community Round Table on June 24 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Estes Valley Community Center. Presentations at the event will highlight information about recent media coverage, Rocky Mountain Roamer, website resources, the new Esets Park Discovery Trails, the Beyond Program and OLIVE, events and sponsorship, group sales, and sustainability initiatives. Click here to RSVP.
The Resident Sentimate Survey, which is being conducted by Clarity of Place for VEP, is open to all residents of Estes Valley. Responses are anonymous and analyzed in aggregate. Earlier this year, business owners and stakeholders affiliated with VEP completed a similar survey with results that will be folded into the tourism master plan.
“The tourism master plan will incorporate input from tourism stakeholders like local business owners and municipal partners, as well as residents, to build a comprehensive, long-term vision of tourism in the Estes Valley. The Resident Sentiment Survey is an integral piece of this process. We hope to receive input from as many people as possible,” said Rebecca Domenico-Gelsigner, operations director at VEP.
VEP is a local marketing district established in 2008 when area voters approved two ballot issues, one to create the LMD and the other to fund the organizaton through a sales tax paid by customers and collected from all lodging properties on stays shorter than 30 days. According to Colorado law, a local marking district is a legal entity whose purpose is to promote tourism and economic development in a designated area. VEP operates under a Board of Directors appointed by Larimer County Commissioners and Town of Estes Park Trustees.
Tourism: Estes Park’s #1 industry
Estes Park has been a vacation destination for centuries. As far back as 10,000 years ago, the Native American tribes of the Ute and Arapaho would summer in the Estes Valley and then winter in the Middle Park region south of Grand Lake.
In 1820, Stephen H. Long, a major in the Corps of Topographical Engineers in the U.S. Army, received orders under President James Monroe to lead an expedition through the American West to find the sources of the Platte, Arkansas, and Red Rivers.
Long’s journeys led him just west of what is today the city of Fort Morgan and from there he observed the mountains of the Front Range, including the 14,259-foot mountain that would be named Longs Peak even though Long never came into the Estes Valley or climbed the mountain.
Three decades later, Joel Estes and his family came to the Estes Valley as pioneer settlers. In 1864, William Byers, the editor and publisher of the Rocky Mountain News, named the area Estes Park. Estes sold his property to Griff Evans who guest cabins and established the area’s first dude ranch. Since then, people have been coming to the Estes Valley first as tourists and many have returned to make the area home.
According to the Visit Estes Park 2024 Annual Report, some 2.2 million guests visited an average of 2.48 times for a total of 5.4 million visits, with 4.2 million visits to Rocky Mountain National Park, an increase of .9% from 2023. In July alone, Estes welcomed 983,000 guests. Total visitor spending was $372,600,000, an increase of 6.2% over 2023 spending.
The data analytics in the annual report provide details about the demographics about who the tourists are, where they hail from, how long they stay for, the types of lodging visitors choose, efforts to extend the visitor season with festivals and other activities as a way to provide local businesses with ongoing revenue.
The 25-page report also provides information about how Visit Estes Park spends its revenue dollars to promote Estes as a tourist destination and how VEP partners with local organizations and businesses to support community engagement.
“The tourism industry is here to serve the community and support our quality of life. With survey responses from locals, we can work to make sure that the future of tourism in Estes Park considers what community and quality of life mean for them,” said Domenico-Gelsigner.
Tourism influences every economic sector in Estes Park including lodging, restaurants, attractions, retail, healthcare, construction, nonprofits, banking, and development.
VEP will use the Resident Sentiment Survey along with information learned from the Stakeholder Sentiment Survey and a community visioning session which were conducted in April to craft the final Tourism Master Plan which will be completed and published later this fall.
To weigh in on the survey and be eligible for the $250 gift certificate, click here.