FOCUS SUNDAY, JUNE 14, 2015 • B1
Wish you were here
Marketing mecca or fledgling boom town?
H
as Montrose become the boom town of the Wester n Slope or are the efforts of the Montrose Office of Business and Tourism reaping benefits? Four months of surging sales tax and other non weather-affected tax receipts does not a trend make, however, the spike in revenue warrants further scrutiny. Released last week was the Montrose Monthly Sales, Use and Excise Tax Report for April, and for the first four months of 2015, the receipts are solidly outpacing respective numbers for the same months of a year ago — to the tune of 10.5 percent or $431,000. The only downturn was the receipts of the Construction-Use Tax, which because of rain dropped nearly 15 percent. Also, the city calculates — during its budgetdrafting process — a tally 3 percent higher than the one of two years previous, conservatively planning for growth. Despite the broad upswing, city leaders are not quite ready to call the rise in revenues to city coffers a trend. In fact, City Manager Bill Bell has done everything he can to avoid using the word “trend” in describing the sustained surge.
MONTROSE CO JUNE 14, 2015
By Alan Lewis Gerstenecker Daily Press News Editor C/O Montrose Daily Press 3684 N. Townsend Ave. Montrose, CO 81401
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Sunday, June 14, 2015
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Maverik Canyon
Still, Mayor David Romero is optimistic the surge will continue, and he attributes the rise to the city’s efforts to market itself outside Montrose as the reason for the surpluses. “I think the way we’re using the Visitor Guide has been so crucial,” Romero said. “I think that went a long way to get people to think of Montrose as a destination rather than a passthrough. I think that’s the crux of what we’re seeing.”
Facts remain So, semantics of a trend aside, the fact remains: The city is receiving double-digit percentage windfall increases in revenues. These numbers also fly in the face of what’s happening with the national economy, which witnessed a 0.7 percent downturn in the first-quarter of 2015. So, why? Why is more money flowing through the cash registers of Montrose businesses, motels and restaurants than a year ago while the national gross domestic product is stumbling? Romero’s explanation of increased marketing policies is feasible, said Jennifer Loshaw, the Visitor Center concierge. Certainly, Montrose’s shop owners and managers of those businesses are doing their best to market their wares and services, attract residents’ dollars. But the surge exceeds residents’ discretionary income. The only answer can be an outside factor, such as tourism — outside money coming in. “That’s exactly what we’re seeing,” Loshaw said. “The number of visitors from out of town last year in May was about 84, and this year, in May, it was about 360. Local visitors last year was about 149. This year, May, was 160.” The out-of-towners flocking to the Visitor Center are more than four times the number of a year ago. Loshaw is among the first to greet guests to the Visitor Center, and when she was interviewed for this story on June 4, guests to center already were approaching 70. “We’re just four days into the month, and we’ve already had 68 guests,” Joseph said. “I’m looking for these numbers to surge for the summer tourism months.”
Young retirees Loshaw attributed the rise in Visitor Center attendance to a couple of factors beyond just seasonal factors. “What I’m seeing is a tremendous amount of young retirees, 50- to 60age traveling,” Loshaw
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See additional information on tourism and its connection to sales tax collection in today’s paper.
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“Business has been very steady, although not like it was 2005. It appears things are are steady rather that the spikes that we’ve seen. It’s especially nice with the last years that we’ve had. It’s great to see things getting back to normalcy.” Bertorello said in the last 30 days, Montrose Real Estate Group has closed on 108 properties with another 51 pending. Loshaw said she’s seen a steady stream of one particular guest.
Pursuing relocation said. “There’s a large international population flying in and getting RVs and just hitting the road — doing national park runs — without a designated plan. They get to a town they like, and then they explore more.” Loshaw believes the city’s marketing endeavors are playing a role, and she said, much of the interest is coming from maturing, near-retirement age baby boomers. “They like that its (Montrose) not too big,” Loshaw said. “They like that there’s an airport, that its affordable. Many have looked into that before ever getting here. And, the housing market — they love the pricing, the housing market and the tax structure. They don’t think our utilities are too expensive, and they think that the opportunities to dine out are affordable and quality. And, they love that they can afford to go to Telluride for a day, but not have to live there.” The affordability of homes and an increase in home sales in Montrose has a broker with Montrose Real Estate Group beaming. “Things are good,” said Gary Bertorello.
“We’re seeing a lot of relocation requests for the same demographic — young retirees looking for an affordable place to live where the weather patterns are good, where the services they need and want for aging are desired,” Loshaw said. “And, they like the proximity to what’s around us. They love the trail systems here.” Addressing that demographic, Loshaw said visitors come in asking about relocation packets. “I’ve talked to realtors and from October to late spring,” she said. “There was a lot of relocation requests, mostly from Denver. Now, what I’m seeing are people from Montana and Arizona, people who have been living in the country and the mountains looking for a more — not rural is the way to say it — but can still be away from the city, but still have the services without being in the mountains.” Loshaw said many guests to the Visitor Center seek recreational information. “Most days, our visitors leave here with a bag of (tourist) literature,” she said. “What we’ve created here is a map of
the city. One thing I’ve been asked is why people who live here really don’t recreate here? My response was some of the recreational resources here are just not wellknown; they’re not easy to find. So, we created a recreational-access map, which shows you where the public lands are.”
Rack cards Most often literature that flies out the door includes data on the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and places to fish, hike and raft. Also, the Visitor Center offers informative touch screens that can narrow searches for specific tourism items. “What they do, essentially, is they just go up to the screen and they pick from a variety of menus, whether they want to go to a restaurant or go biking,” Joseph said. “The system will tell you what trails are available, how long they are. What you need to do. We’ve complimented those with these day cards — these rack cards — that people can take with them.” Roy Anderson is a retired volunteer at the Visitor Center who fields calls from prospective tourists. “I get calls from people from all over the country, and they found out about us on the Web,” Anderson said. “I would think the Black Canyon pulls because of our proximities. A lot of people come in here and have questions about the Black Canyon. I would think that’s a big connection. Definitely, there’s a link there to the growth (of numbers).” Joseph recognizes the marketability of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison — something he says lacked emphasis previously — and now sees it as its biggest
calling card. (See related story).
Other attractions “An example is the Museum of the Mountain West,” Joseph said. “They have a great product, but they don’t necessarily have that great marketing background, or the resources to put really compelling things together. So, that’s where we come in. We’re working on a piece with them right now. We tell them ‘give us the words, give us the images, and we’ll put it together in the look and feel that we want to promote Montrose. You get to sign off on it. So, we pay for the creative, we pay for the design, we pay for the publication, and then we just give it to you.’ Ultimately, Montrose benefits from this.” With the apparent successes, Joseph was asked whether the OBT is the reason for the surge in tax dollars and the spike in guests to the Visitor Center. “I can’t answer that,” Joseph said. “If I were to say that, it’d be the most hubristic thing that I could do. So, no. I’m not going to say that, but what I am going to say, is ever since we’ve come online, we have put together the infrastructure, the relationships, the programming to sort of create the environment that becomes conducive to visitation, tourism. So, in other words, when people come into town now, they can go to a really great website that is complete with information, all the links work, all the information is updated. They’ve got a mobile app, so if they’re more technologically oriented, they can download our app, and it can tell them what to do and moreover, it can how to
get anywhere because of the GPS capacity.” Joseph cited the success of the 2014 “Visit Montrose” Visitor guide as piquing the interest in the area and setting the table for increased marketing endeavors. The latest edition of “Visit Montrose” is available all over Montrose and other locations. A total of 80,000 of the publications were printed and appear in such places as Los Angeles International Airport, Mayor Romero said. “Last year’s was an award-winning publication through the Colorado Publishing Association,” Joseph said.
Visitor Center Stacey Ryan, the OBT’s business programs and event coordinator, said she’s interacted with state tourism officials, and they like what they see at the Montrose Visitor Center. “People come in here and look at our Visitor Center and say, ‘Wow. Look at this Visitor center,’” Ryan said. “Our Visitor Center makes the state Visitor Center drool. They are so jealous of our fabulous touch screens and all that. We’re really trying to do it right. We’re trying to do if for Montrose because we know it’s a special place.” The Montrose Visitor Center has seven interactive screens and an event monitor, in addition to various eventcard racks and theaterlike settings that preview the Black Canyon and the Ute Indian Museum. Two additional event monitors are at Montrose Regional Airport and at the Montrose Pavilion. Story continued on next page