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Two years into a five-year plan for sustainable management, the Travel and Tourism Board is reporting about 10% completion of 25 suggested actions with 80% still in progress. The remainder have yet to be started.
Crista Valentino is the executive director of the board and helped walk dozens of attendees through what’s being done to achieve the eight goals of the sustainability plan at the recreation center this week. The board also announced a new tool to help business owners and elected officials make more informed decisions.
The tourism dashboard, a data visualization tool that shows visitation by state, length of stay, age, and income, is available on their website.
Valentino hopes the tool helps provide more transparency into the board’s marketing decisions. Tourism is the lifeblood of the Jackson Hole economy, and, Valentino said, it’s a hot-button issue.
“It’s kind of like a dirty word,” she said. “When we look at or are talking about managing the destination sustainably, it’s really that balance between the economy, community needs and the impacts on the environment.”
The Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board was formed in 2011 with a clear objective: to bring more visitors to Jackson Hole.
Over a third of the board’s annual budget — which comes from a tax on lodging — is still spent on marketing.
And it did — some felt too well, overcrowding trailheads and campsites, contributing to bumper-to-bumper traffic and stressing natural resources. In response to community pushback, and after a delay due to COVID, the board adopted a Sustainability Destination Management Plan in 2023.
At least one business owner, Aaron Pruzan, feels it was the right decision.
He owns Rendezvous River Sports and has been involved with the Travel and Tourism Board since its inception. He likens the ideal balance to river permits.
“Our permits only allow us to bring so many people on the river on any given day,” Pruzan said. “Most of the great rivers of the west are managed that way and you maintain a really high-quality experience.”
In the same way, he said, there should be a balance between business owners’ appetites for the visitation they rely on and the needs of community members and natural resources that absorb the strain.
The Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board provides financial support for KHOL, however, our supporters do not shape our coverage.