During their first meeting as a marketing advisory committee last week, 16 local business owners laid the foundation for their work over the next two years as they launched efforts to develop recommendations for the Visit Estes Park Board of Directors.
The gathering was used to announce that hospitality awards for frontline employees in the travel and tourism industry will be awarded during VEP’s Sept. 8 Tourism Summit. Nominations for recognitions launch this week and will be accepted through June 15.
VEP awards will be given for visitor engagement and place stewardship, being a tourism dream team, and being a visitor champion.
A Nick Mollé award, honoring individuals who embody creativity and conservation through storytelling, film, or music, will also be given. The Mollé award recipient will be selected by Nick Mollé’s widow, Mary Beth, and his daughters, Lauren and Claire.
More information about the awards can be obtained by calling VEP at 970-577-9900.
The first meeting of the marketing advisory committee also provided the group with an opportunity to elect officers, hear about existing promotional programming, provide direction for positioning the VEP brand experience, and create committees to review agency proposals for redesign of the VEP website, advertising programs, and public relations.
The group elected Deb Gibson as chair and Christen Henny as vice chair. Gibson, owner of Rams Horn Village, served on the Visit Estes Park Board of Directors for eight years. Henny is general manager of The Stanley Hotel.
“Our mission is to attract guests,” VEP CEO Sarah Leonard told the group. “Our core responsibility is to do destination marketing, attract new visitors to our community and our destination, and to provide year-round economic growth,” she said when introducing the group to VEP’s responsibilities.
While data on Estes Park visitors has previously been provided through a Dean Runyan Associates economic study, Leonard hopes to bolster the data available on the local market. VEP anticipates working with Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics affiliate that Leonard said provides a “more holistic economic and visitor profile data for destinations.”
After exercises to learn more about committee members’ opinions about Estes Park, individuals were given the opportunity to volunteer for committees that will review agency proposals for advertising services, plan and execute a new website, and select a company to lead public relations efforts.
According to Leonard, the agency chosen to provide advertising services will be expected to provide creative services for a variety of campaigns and to assist with strategizing how and when VEP spends paid media dollars. Proposals for programs were due May 1 and will be reviewed until May 15.
Another segment of branding revisions will come from a company that redesigns VEP’s website, which includes the internal advertising program.
“We’re really excited to take a new look at that and then have a fresh website for Visit Estes Park,” Leonard told the group. VEP is auditing the current website, which has an estimated 4,000 pages according to Amanda Scherlin, vice president of brand experience. Proposals for the website redesign will also be reviewed until May 15.
Proposals from companies hoping to provide public relations services are due May 8 and will be reviewed until May 22.
The VEP board is expected to provide all recommendations for contract services during its June 18 meeting.