Certified Destination: Park City, USA

Mountain IDEAL Certified by Green Destinations

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By Morgan Mingle & Halle Nissen, Visit Park City

Park City, Utah, nestled within the Wasatch Mountain range at nearly 7,000 feet in elevation, is about 30 miles east of Salt Lake City. Originally a traditional hunting ground for the Ute and Shoshone tribes and founded as a silver mining town in 1869, Park City maintains much of its historic character today, especially along its centrally located Main Street.

Renowned for its two world-class ski areas, Park City Mountain and Deer Valley Resort, this once sleepy mining town has become a hub for outdoor adventurers. Park City began attracting skiing enthusiasts in 1960 when a group of mining executives established a revenue stream “above” that of the now-abandoned silver mine beneath Park City Mountain. In the decades that followed, the town experienced a series of watershed events, each vastly raising its profile with travelers. In 2002, Park City hosted several winter Olympic events and will host again in 2034. While Park City is known for winter recreation, there are ample opportunities to explore during summer and fall. With over 450 miles of hiking and biking trails, this town of 8,400 residents has thrived as a year-round destination.

Tension Between Locals & Tourism

Park City has a history of attracting skiers, outdoor enthusiasts, and luxury travelers looking to connect with nature. By 2019, Park City was welcoming more than 600,000 visitors each year. Many locals began voicing their concerns related to traffic and visitors’ behavior. When COVID-19 hit, new challenges emerged in the form of a historic real estate boom and an influx of new residents, as affluent citizens fled neighboring coastal states for the mountains. Trailheads that were typically quiet began to seem congested, childcare was filling up years in advance, and it started to feel more like an “us vs. them” situation among locals and tourists.

Community Buy-In

The strength and longevity of a destination’s tourism economy are in part connected to public support for tourism. Without strong pride in place, in the visitor experience offered and interest in sharing the place with others, the tourism economy will face challenges. As the natural bridge connecting tourism and our community, the Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau recognized an opportunity to plan our journey toward destination stewardship and sustainability. The process began with a Destination Assessment by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, making us the 35th destination in the world to undergo this review. Next, we formed a Stewardship Council representing a diverse cross-section of stakeholders. Research, a situation assessment, focus groups, public meetings, and online surveys rounded out the process and led to rigorous discussions around objectives, strategies, and initiatives. This finished plan is a comprehensive community vision distilled into seven objectives.

Sustainable Tourism Plan Objectives

We developed seven objectives to help represent the high-level categories of work our community is undertaking to achieve its vision of sustainable tourism. Each objective supports multiple Stewardship Principles and UN Sustainable Development Goals.

1. Cultivate local pride and respect for the Park City/Summit County experience
2. Implement sustainable transportation, housing, water, energy and waste management policies and initiatives
3. Protect and manage our natural environment to enable sustainable outdoor recreation
4. Ensure the long-term resilience of Park City/Summit County’s economy
5. Equalize the economic benefits and mitigate impacts of the visitor economy
6. Leverage messaging and programming to accelerate sustainable tourism
7. Foster the development and management of Park City/Summit County’s art and culture tourism assets

Two years into implementing the Sustainable Tourism Plan, we are proud of our community’s achievements. Highlights include:

• Elektron Solar, an 80 MWac solar facility in Tooele County, was completed to provide renewable power to Park City Municipal, Summit County Corporation, Park City Mountain, and Deer Valley Resort.
• All of our local trail managers, Mountain Trails, Basin Recreation, and PC Trails & Open Space Department, have collaborated to create a new, comprehensive Park City Trails website where visitors can easily find conditions for all trails, view trailhead cameras, and learn the proper trail
• etiquette that helps preserve the land they enjoy.
• The Chamber Sponsored Employee Benefit Program allows employers with as few as two employees to avail themselves of these comprehensive benefits. The program offers excellent options for medical, dental, vision, and other ancillary benefits. The array of comprehensive coverage options reflects our belief that employees with high-quality health insurance are healthier, happier, and more productive, leading to greater engagement and less turnover, a benefit to our entire community.
• The WE RIP incentive program was created by the Housing Resource Center at Mountainlands Community Housing Trust to encourage local homeowners to rent to the local workforce in Park City, as it is increasingly difficult for our workforce to find affordable housing in our community. This program offers homeowners a FREE pair of Rossignol skis or snowboard and bindings if they put their home in the rental pool. Win-win!

Lessons Learned

Sustainability is about preservation for future generations, but it’s also about quality of life today. Destinations should never view stakeholders or their local communities as mere audiences for communications; rather, their voices and participation should be considered essential to any program’s success. Below are a few more key lessons from our experience:

• Formalize community input – working with an independent research/consultant firm to gather surveys and manage town hall gatherings has proven to be an invaluable resource.
• Sustainability Tourism Grant – we want our local stakeholders involved and on board with our Sustainable Tourism Plan, so we created a grant! The Sustainable Tourism Grant was developed to fund programs, initiatives, promotions, and events that support the objectives outlined in the Sustainable Tourism Plan.
• Community alignment – keeping the locals informed about our progress and encouraging them to be part of the solution has been a key reason for our success so far.

For Visit Park City, the majesty of Utah’s Wasatch Mountain Range will always be what makes our destination special and draws people in. For any green destination, our best advice is to discover and build your program upon true passion for what makes your destination unique.