How to develop a sustainable Vail Valley economy
The Vail Daily recently (January 25) published an article outlining that over 6,000 jobs have been lost in Eagle County during the recent recession. That equals a whopping 20% of our local workforce, not an insignificant number by any stretch of the imagination. According to the article foreclosures are up, building permits are down and while tax collections vary by municipality they are down countywide.
On a positive note, lodging occupancy is returning to pre-recession levels and many tourism-related businesses (specifically restaurants) seem to be doing well this winter. Event attendance was also positive for many of the signature programs including the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Teva Mountain Games and other events.
So, what can we do (other wring our hands and pray)?
I was fortunate enough to attend Governor Hickenlooper’s regional economic development meeting in January in Edwards. The Governor outlined a “bottom up” economic development plan for the state of Colorado that focuses on each county developing a plan, merging those into a regional plan and then developing a state plan based on the regional feedback.
This model makes sense. I’d like to offer up two suggestions to help us through the continued recession, neither of which are easy but both of which are impactful to our community.
First and foremost, embrace our tourism economy. Seems simple enough, right? I’m certainly not advocating that we forget about construction and real estate, but the need to embrace our guests and to increase the number of guests here will only benefit our construction and real estate markets as the economy improves. After all, how many people purchase property sight unseen? We need to get them here first. It’s not just “tourism businesses” that benefit from more guests. Professional services such as banking, restoration, medical facilities, etc all benefit from additional visitors to our valley.
Secondly, and maybe a less obvious answer, is to shop locally. And not just retail shopping (although that’s important), but shopping for professional services. Our community is filled with entrepreneurs and small businesses that fulfill business-to-business services. Shop these local vendors before you automatically use an out of town service – my guess is that you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the variety of options and the competitive pricing available. The Vail Valley is home to dozens of professional services/non-tourism centered small businesses ranging from accountants to technology providers, from breweries to promotional products, from marketing services to drywall installation. Shopping locally for your business-to-business needs in addition to your retail needs can help create a more sustainable, vibrant community while supporting and developing a spirit of entrepreneurism.
What is the Vail Valley Partnership, in our role as the Chamber & Tourism Bureau for Eagle County, doing to support these efforts? We are in the final stages of developing our valley-wide Sports & Event Coalition to drive more guests during the spring/summer/fall months and currently have programs/events (ranging from Vail to Beaver Creek to Avon to Eagle) with over 40,000 attendees confirmed for 2011. And the Partnership is continuing to offer networking opportunities, marketing benefits and awareness opportunities for our business-to-business members so they can increase awareness of their services available to the community.
It’s imperative that we, the business community and local residents, support the “bottom up” effort being developed by the Governor’s office and recognize that embracing our tourism economy and supporting our local business-to-business suppliers, while not the answer to all our problems, is a solid first step.
I encourage all Vail Valley Partnership member businesses to get engaged with the Partnership and to contact us with any suggestions you may have to help us better serve you.