Who are our customers?
• Retreat (Businesses, Church, Alternative Lifestyle)
• 2-day stay passing through on way to other major attractions within 500 miles
- Grand Canyon, Taos, Yellowstone, all of CO, Utah parks
• VFR (family and friends)
• 3-5 day stay – 1-2 hr drive (visitors from Grand Junction, Montrose, Durango)
• DINKS (dual income, no kids)
• OMs (older mature-retired or semi-retired)
• Recreational enthusiasts/professionals
- Photography, rock climbing, ice climbing
Daily happening card – Event Calendar
• Bandon, OR, example
• Even includes garage sales and everything that was happening that day/week
• Calendar provided by the newspaper in OR on a weekly basis
• Incredibly effective way to communicate information
• Could be done in Ouray in the Plaindealer or with story boards in lodging or other ways
Comment: “Shopping locally is not appreciated in any way, shape, or form”
• Only consistent for 6 weeks from July 1 through mid-August
• All the restaurants are closed on Tuesdays for meals
• Shop schedules are erratic
Lack of professionalism in hospitality
• Overhead costs make it difficult to keep consistent help
• Hobby businesses interested in their own families, understandably
• Inconsistent messages to customers
City doesn’t have enough money
• Heavy reliance on volunteers
• Suspicion that spending not officially scrutinized (fountain on 6th Avenue)
• Questions about why we’re doing certain projects
• Unexpected costs like excessive snow removal
A few strengths
• Christmas Day to church in jeans
• Step back in time
• Winter climate for winter activities
• Not too many pine beetles . . . yet
• Air quality, water quality
• Economic – in-state travel increases in a weakening economy
Great opportunities to learn something
• Historical
• Workshops and performing arts (not well packaged or bundled with other services)
• Places for kids to go to take a class
- Telluride Summer Academy
- Voyager Youth Program
- Tracy Imhoff drop-in classes for kids
- Proposed program for kids at Weehawken
• Lack of data regarding needs and level of demand
• Yoga classes – numerous, but not well publicized
Comments about sharing, gathering, and responding to information:
“Every lodging place could have a board in the lobby with the daily activities in Ouray. Using a centrally located kiosk instead of signs on Duckett’s windows or emails could be more effective.”
• May require city approval
• Requires cooperation and manpower to support and update
• Business owners must be informed
• Strong need to share more information back and forth along with data collection
• Use collective information from retail, restaurants, and lodgers
• Utilize restaurants to publicize (True Grit has John Wayne history on back of menu.)
• Retailers could provide survey forms with their notes and observations
• Some business owners just want to run their business and not get involved in information gathering or community related growth (education of the benefits to everyone needed)
Cultural, historical
• Not enough theatre – in a mountain town should be available all summer
• History of buildings not valued by business owners (not all interested in maintaining historical appearance of their own business)
• Should have a blurb about each building at the site (St. Elmo has a good example about the history of the hotel.)
• Town and city government not perceived to value the arts
• Again not communicating cultural and historical information effectively
Other, miscellaneous comments
• Salida does an excellent job of publicizing their art and culture.
• I don’t read the newspaper because I don’t get anything out of it.
• The newspaper should have an arts page
• Perception of OCRA is mixed; some view it as a lodging focus, others see it as focusing major support on all businesses that are OCRA members, but not ignoring non-members
• Events conflict on the schedule without people knowing (avalanche presentation was scheduled at the same time as another activity.
• People have been sent for pizza to a restaurant by a lodging owner only to find out the restaurant had been closed when it had promised to be open.
COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION
• The root cause of many of our community issues
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