Fremont County Tourism Council (FCTC), in the Pikes Peak Wonders travel region, was awarded a CRAFT Recovery Mentor program by the Colorado Tourism Office in fall 2020 to advance recovery efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this CRAFT Recovery Mentor program was to engage with the Fremont County Tourism Council Advocacy Committee to develop an Advocacy and Community Engagement plan.
FCTC promotes and develops tourism in Fremont, Colorado for the social and economic prosperity of the residents and businesses of Fremont County, Colorado.
CRAFT Mentor Program Results
FCTC was paired with Dave Santucci, a CRAFT Mentor with experience in rural tourism advocacy, destination marketing, stakeholder engagement and tourism product development to achieve the following outcomes:
- Development of an Advocacy and Community Engagement (ACE) Toolkit for Fremont County Tourism Council.
- Development of an ACE messaging matrix targeting the three identified audiences for the advocacy messaging: Residents, Tourism-Related Businesses, and Elected and Government Officials.
- Collaborative development of an ACE calendar to identify the primary opportunities to build awareness of the value of tourism amongst the identified audiences.
- Research and provision of the top quantitative measures of tourism from known and trusted sources. These numbers are found in the “sources” tab of the ACE Toolkit.
- Production of an interview with a tourism-related business owner for Fremont County Tourism Council to leverage as a qualitative measure for communicating the value of tourism. The outcome can be found in the “Faces of Tourism” document.
Provided guidance to the already formed Advocacy Committee of the FCTC on immediate next steps and long-term thinking for their group.
“As our community grows and changes, it is important that our organization responds to those changes. Dave's assistance has helped us both focus and broadcast our message to our community in order to garner support, educate civic and government entities, and to meet the needs of our business community.” - Ashlee Sack
About CRAFT Mentor
The Colorado Tourism Office (CTO) developed the Colorado Rural Academy for Tourism (CRAFT) to support communities across the state integrate tourism into their economic development strategies and develop new visitor experiences aimed at attracting increased traveler spending.
The CRAFT Recovery Mentor program provides up to 50 hours of mentoring for Colorado tourism partners to advance one or more tourism strategies that bolsters their response to a recent crisis or natural disaster.
Contact
Ashlee Sack
ashleeneva@hotmail.com
719-248-6376