Five Roaring Fork Valley tourism organizations have come together to launch a valley-wide tourism alliance, the first of its kind in Colorado, that will establish a unified voice for the local tourism industry with the goals of developing solutions to industry barriers and advancing destination stewardship opportunities. The Roaring Fork Valley Destination Alliance (RFVDA) formalizes and elevate existing relationships between the five established organizations to focus on activities and programs that promote responsible visitation, champion the Roaring Fork Valley as a wonderful place to live, work and play; and integrating tourism organizations into valley-wide crisis communications strategies.

The Alliance comprises of the Aspen Chamber Resort Association, Snowmass Tourism, Basalt Chamber of Commerce, Carbondale Tourism, and Visit Glenwood Springs, in partnership with the Colorado Tourism Office through the Restart Destinations Program, an industry offering that is funded by aCARES Act Recovery Assistance grant to foster long-term resilience within Colorado. Through this work, the Colorado Tourism Office seeks to serve as an extended team for Colorado destinations to prioritize and implement collaborative projects that advance statewide industry priorities.

Each community’s tourism organization recently gathered input via insights from their local residents and tourism businesses to understand how tourism priorities have shifted throughout the valley as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tourism organizations also participated in a facilitated workshop to establish priority issues and common themes to address in the next 12 months. Expected priority projects the Alliance will focus on include developing educational messaging and signage for tourists on how to recreate responsibly, management of trash, and overall visitor dispersion at popular natural attractions.

Mission:

We are here to champion the Roaring Fork Valley as a wonderful place to live, work, and play.

Vision:

Establish a unified voice for the five regional tourism organizations to develop and share messaging that encourages responsible and respectful use, and champions the value of tourism throughout the Roaring Fork Valley. 

RFVDA Priorities

Encourage responsible and respectful use: 

• encouraging responsible behaviors in our outdoor spaces
• supporting and promoting stewardship activities on our public lands

Champion the value of tourism: 

• celebrating the positive impacts of tourism 
• advocating for quality of life for our residents

Crisis communications: 

• ensuring our visitors are fully informed about natural disasters and other crisis situations within the Roaring Fork Valley
• supporting our neighboring communities to ensure efficient and effective incident response