May 15, 2009, 8:35 pm
Hannah Marketing Group completed its Branding and Marketing Assessment of Estes Park for the Local Marketing District (LMD) recently, and it is well worth a read. The LMD now has a good road map for future action. Recommendations include researching in detail why people come to and stay in Estes Park, increasing publicity, increasing CVB staff time devoted to group, and retaining a branding company. You can find a link to the report at www.marketestes.org to see all the recommendations.
According to the Hannah report, group sales are about 10 percent of the total lodging business in Estes Park and only five local properties have a group salesperson. Hannah recommends the CVB do more group prospecting and sales and believes that with greater effort, such sales can be doubled.
By building a Convention Center, Estes Park followed a national trend in which municipalities enter the convention business. The theory is that if a town builds more large public facilities, it will attract more tourism, just like the movie “Field of Dreams.” Similarly if we build two indoor facilities at the Stanley Fairgrounds and rebuild the grandstands, the town expects to profit from more visitors.
Yet the record of such public ventures is mixed. In 2005, the Brookings Institution analyzed the convention business. Brookings stated that “localities, sometimes with state assistance, have continued a kind of arms race with competing cities to host these events, investing massive amounts of capital.” It found that attendance at the top 200 national trade shows each year languished at the same level as 1993 attendance. The decline in convention business began before September 11, 2001. Advances in technology and higher fuel costs suggest the trend will continue.
