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Rural Tourist Towns Facing Hard Times |
Bill Hudson | 8/7/08
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One of our Post readers sent me a link yesterday to a USA Today article on small, rural tourist towns, by journalist Deborah Baker. that mentions nearby Chama, New Mexico.
“The summer tourist season in this tiny mountain town is well underway,” writes Baker, “and the quiet RV park nestled under towering cottonwoods ought to be full… but with diesel fuel nearly $5 a gallon at the local gas station, Russell and Marji Patterson are seeing a drop-off in business at the riverside campground they've operated for almost three decades. There are fewer campers — on a recent Friday afternoon the park is only about three-fourths occupied — and family groups are noticeably absent.”
 Russell Patterson says he's learned to live with the ups and downs of a tourist-oriented business in a remote area of the southern Rockies where a scenic railroad and outdoor recreation are about the only draws.
"This gas thing — this is sucking all the extra money out of the American household," Patterson told Baker.
Baker quotes Chama mayor Archie Vigil as predicting, "We're going to see a big hurt here in the village.”
The tourist industry in Pagosa has been feeling a similar pinch. Some local motel owners have told me their occupancy rates are down by 10-20 percent. The Lodging Tax revenues and sales taxes collected by the Town of Pagosa Springs are both down as well, compared to last year.
What can local business people do to lessen the impacts of high gas prices and a nation-wide economic slump? What are Pagosa business owners — like business owners around the country — doing to “get creative”?
Like Pagosa Springs, the Chama area offers stunning scenery and mild summer temperatures — a perennial draw for flatlanders fleeing Texas, Oklahoma and southern New Mexico. A 64-mile railway, billed as the “longest and highest narrow gauge railroad in the country,” snakes its way through the mountains between Chama and Antonito, Colo., an all-day trip.
This year, the railroad has been offering shorter trips and special, themed rides to attract families. Their creativity is paying off, apparently; their rider numbers are equal to last year, even while Chama overall is struggling.
Caroline Beteta, who heads the California Travel and Tourism Commission, says small tourist towns may actually be able to benefit from the high gasoline prices — if they focus their message and efforts on nearby markets.
"The drive markets are critical," Beteta said.
In the rural, mountainous Lake Shasta area of northeastern California, "we used to get a lot of people from Southern California, which is 500 miles away," said Bob Warren, general manager for the Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association, the tourism organization in a eight-county region about the size of Ohio.
“This year, the marketing effort is being focused closer to home, in Sacramento and San Francisco,” Baker writes. “And merchants are pitching deals designed to lure reluctant travelers. On Lake Shasta, Seven Crown Resorts is offering free fuel when vacationers rent gas-thirsty houseboats, up to $500 for a seven-day trip.”
That tactic has apparently made a huge difference, drawing mainly first-time customers and keeping business roughly on a par with last year. The same special is also available at the company's locations on the California Delta and on Lake Mead and Lake Mohave.
Back in Colorado, Baker writes, tourist attractions have beefed up their offerings to “try to counter the double whammy of higher gas prices and a shaky economy.” The Rio Grande Scenic Railroad, which operates out of the southern Colorado towns of Alamosa and La Veta is featuring a "High Altitude Concert Series," carrying passengers to a mountain meadow at 9,000 feet for an evening of music. Country singers Ricky Skaggs and Michael Martin Murphey are headliners this year.
How about Pagosa Springs? Are businesses trying anything new and creative to boost customer numbers?
I spoke with several people familiar with the Pagosa business community, and uncovered only a couple of new happenings in the area.
The biggest buzz in the Pagosa tourist marketing effort is undoubtedly the Pagosa Quality Fishing Project, a collaborative $50,000 effort involving several business owners and the Town Tourism Committee, to stock nearly 9,000 large — 12 to 22 inch — trout in the town’s downtown stretch of the San Juan River. The group is using part of the funding to do print, web and media marketing to publicize the stocking program.
Another new event, planned for later in the summer by Dogwood Café owner Brooke Kitchens, is the Pagosa Saturday Market, a sort of combination flea market, crafts festival, anything-goes type of outdoor market in the parking lot next to the café, at the intersection of Highway 160 and Piedra Road.
“I kept looking out at the empty parking lot,” Kitchens told me earlier this week, “ and wondered how we could make use of all that space.” The parking lot once served the Corner Store gas station, which went out of business earlier this year.
“We are starting on Labor Day weekend and holding the market every Saturday through September 27.” Kitchens is hoping the market will attract a wide range of vendors, flea marketers, and non-profit organizations— and of course, Saturday shoppers.
Another new local attraction planned for Reservoir Hill Park is horseback riding, to be offered by longtime Pagosa outfitter Matt Poma. The project is in the “trial and error” stage, Poma says, and will be looked at closely by the Town to make sure other park users are not negatively impacted.
Other than those few events, Pagosa business owners seem to be tightening their belts and conducting business as usual — even though the tourism numbers are a bit less than “usual.” |
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