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The Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau is currently developing a Sustainable Tourism Plan for Park City and Summit County. This process has a number of steps:
In the first phase, a GSTC Destination Assessment was commissioned to assess Summit County’s current state of sustainable tourism development and management. Using the GSTC Criteria for Destinations (Version 2, 2019), the GSTC Assessment builds on the county’s foundation of initiatives to assess and improve the sustainability of the tourism sector. The holistic and participatory GSTC process addresses questions such as:
Review the results of the Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) Destination Assessment here. Learn more about the results of the GSTC assessment at a recorded webinar presented by Dr. Kelly Bricker on our Facebook page or review the GSTC assessment Presentation Document.
Note: The GSTC Destination Assessment is not a certification program. Rather, it’s widely recognized as a critical tool for helping destinations improve their management practices and prepare them for future certification by a GSTC accredited destination certification program.
As a next step, The Coraggio Group conducted a comprehensive survey of Park City residents, business owners, workers, and visitors. They used these 2,600+ survey responses, in addition to focus groups and individual interviews with local leaders, to create the Situation Assessment for Park City and Summit County. This assessment identified 7 key themes to help inform the Sustainable Tourism planning process:
The Destination Stewardship Council was formed to develop the Sustainable Tourism Plan for Park City and Summit County. The council contains members from diverse perspectives, including government representatives, large and small local businesses, nonprofits, and residents at large. Over the course of 6 meetings, the council will use the GSTC Assessment and Situation Assessment to create a vision and action plan for the future of sustainable tourism in Park City and Summit County. The Sustainable Tourism Plan is expected to be finalized in summer 2022.
During two public sessions, the Coraggio Group presented key takeaways from the Situation Assessment, shared progress the Stewardship Council has undertaken towards the creation of the Sustainable Tourism Plan and provided a forum for community sentiments on tourism and feedback on draft Sustainable Tourism documents. If you'd like to catch up on what we discussed during these sessions, take a look at the recordings and documents linked below.
Park City Summit County Vision Statement
For more information and any questions, please get in touch with Morgan Mingle, Director of Sustainable Tourism, at MorganMingle@VisitParkCity.com
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) manages the GSTC Destination Criteria, and global standards for sustainable travel and tourism and provides international accreditation for sustainable tourism Certification Bodies.
The GSTC standard covers the four main categories of destination sustainability:
Some of the uses of the GSTC Destination Criteria include the following:
The criteria indicate what should be done, not how to do it or whether the goal has been achieved. This role is fulfilled by performance indicators, associated educational materials, and access to tools for implementation, all of which are an indispensable complement to the GSTC Destination Criteria. The GSTC Destination Assessment facilitates systematic analysis charting a roadmap to meet GSTC’s internationally recognized standard for sustainable destination management, the GSTC Destination Criteria, and indicators.
The tourism industry is comprised of a complex network of stakeholders and groups that have an interest in the development, management, and marketing of tourism for Summit County. The support, commitment, and cooperation of these stakeholders to tourism within the county is essential for the long-term stewardship of the industry. Identifying and understanding who the stakeholders in a destination are, and what their interests are, is important in developing an appropriate engagement process. Based on research, a stakeholder engagement process for a destination such as Summit County: