What does it mean for the tourism sector to be part of a community? That’s a question I’ve been sitting with since returning from a national travel conference, where destination leaders from across the country were asking the same thing.
Visit Estes Park is our community’s destination marketing and management organization. Funded through lodging tax revenue, VEP promotes Estes Park as a quality travel destination, supports local businesses and nonprofits, and works to ensure our visitor economy strengthens the community.
The industry conversation is shifting in ways that matter here. Visitor counts and lodging tax receipts are still important benchmarks, and they’re no longer the whole story. Across the country, communities are pushing destinations to measure what also matters to residents: whether people feel tourism is improving their quality of life, whether growth is sustainable, and whether the benefits are broadly shared. VEP is committed to evolving alongside those expectations.
That commitment is at the heart of the 2026 Visit Estes Park Tourism Summit, happening Tuesday, Sept. 8. We designed this event to be more than an industry briefing. It’s a community conversation — open to business owners, nonprofit leaders, local officials, workers, volunteers, and everyday residents who care about the direction of Estes Park and the surrounding valley.
During the summit, we’ll share what we’re seeing in travel trends, how VEP is investing in Estes Park’s long-term future, and how we think about measuring our impact in ways that go beyond the bottom line. We’ll talk about resident sentiment, sustainability, and community well-being — because those are valuable indicators of whether we’re getting this right.
We’ll also listen. The VEP team will make time for questions, honest feedback, and the kind of candid dialogue that doesn’t always happen at formal events. We don’t have all the answers, and we don’t pretend to. What we do believe is the best path forward is built together — with the businesses, neighbors, and community members who make Estes Park a special place.
This year brings something new: a $38 registration fee. The number is a deliberate nod to Colorado’s identity as the 38th state and ties into the state’s 250|150 anniversary celebrations. The fee enables us to expand programming and introduce the VEP Tourism Awards, a new recognition program honoring the people and organizations whose work makes Estes Park an exceptional destination to visit.
Tourism isn’t something that happens to Estes Park. It’s something this community actively shapes. We hope you’ll join us Sept. 8 to be part of that conversation.
To learn more about Visit Estes Park, please visit us at VisitEstesPark.com. Register for the 2026 Tourism Summit.
I find it very disheartening that they are now charging for this event. It use to be something provided to us free as the citizens generating the funding for this organization.