Beating The Resort Seasonal Economy: Telluride’s Intelligent Plan
All town’s host events. Dallas follows the trend, hosting many events. There areDallas corporate events, Dallas team building events, Dallas social events and plenty others. Any city is host to a multitude of gatherings, some to inform, some to entertain and some to promote business. Some cities and towns build economies around events, others see a good thing and want to keep it going. Some towns have seasonal economies and struggle to find ways to make them year round.
Telluride Colorado has a distinct advantage over summer destination towns. Telluride is a remote ski town that has a charming town and an excellent ski resort. During the ski season, the town is crowded with the many tourists. Crowds come to enjoy the winter recreation and buy necessities and luxuries such as food and entertainment. Skiing attracts a more affluent crowd so luxury and non-essential businesses do well. But Telluride has a problem; there is no skiing in the summer. Telluride’s advantage was that it’s busy season was during the coldest seasons. Different from resort towns in the North East, the off season in Telluride offers some of the best weather. This was a perfect opportunity to develop a four season resort town.
Telluride located in the south west corner of Colorado. It is a little town in a box canyon far away from any major urban population center. It was once a mining town but now offered little industry outside of being a winter resort destination. The town representatives began scheduling summer festivals including music festivals, a mushroom festival, a film festival and art events. There are many outdoor adventures and tours for visitors who come to Telluride. It built a city campsite that bordered the wilderness and was also close enough to walk into the town, and was included on the shuttle route. The Telluride Bluegrass Festival grew into a major festival. The film festival has developed a strong reputation and a loyal following. The film venues were in old historic theaters. There was also an attempt to make the celebrity event more public friendly, with outdoor seminars and theater in the park in the shadows of the mountain.
The town was also challenged by real estate limitations. The town is located between three steep mountain ridges. There was no real property to develop and many of the buildings held historic significance and charm. Expanding the town to meet the demand would mean destroying the charm that helped draw the crowd. Once again Telluride had an additional advantage. The bulk of the ski area was on the slopes on the other side of the mountain. To travel by car it was nearly a 15 mile trip, but the Gondola was able to function as the umbilical chord between the two areas. The original town could maintain old fashion charm, the other could offer all the modern amenities of resort living.
Telluride has created a four season destination by utilizing its natural resources, protecting its heritage, and creatively expanding both the town and the town’s attractions.
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