Visit Montrose Earns Tourism Recovery
Grant/Gold Level Status

Montrose, CO — The City of Montrose's Office of Business and Tourism, OBT, was recently selected to participate in the Colorado Tourism Office, CTO, Restart Destinations Program, an effort to advance recovery-focused tourism as Colorado destinations emerge from the pandemic.

The CTO announced that Visit Montrose was selected along with 27 other tourism destinations across Colorado to participate in the program. 

Participating destinations receive a recovery assessment, a full-day community-visioning and action-planning workshop, 75 hours of free consulting to advance priority projects, and $10,000 of direct marketing support from the CTO.

The Restart Destinations Program was funded by a $2.4 million CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant through the U.S. Economic Development Administration to drive near-term recovery and foster long-term resilience through 2023. 

Part of the program funds various campaigns to inform users of nearby public lands about the importance of putting out campfires, cleaning up trash, trail etiquette, and other responsibilities to ensure public spaces are maintained and kept clean.

“We are so excited for this opportunity to work with the Colorado Tourism Office in the Restart Destinations Program,” said Kailey Rhoten, the OBT's marketing and tourism manager. “We will be working with local partners such as Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Montrose County, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and our community in developing our action plan for recovering, educating, and protecting our public lands in Montrose.”

Other participating destinations include:

Aspen Chamber Resort Association
Canyons & Plains of Southeast Colorado
Tourism Council of Carbondale — (Roaring Fork Valley)
City of Central
City of Fruita — (Towns of Fruita & Palisade)
Visit La Junta
Visit Montrose
City of Woodland Park
Clear Creek County Tourism Bureau
Custer County
Fremont County
Visit Glenwood Springs
Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce
Lake City Hinsdale County Marketing Committee
Lake County Tourism Panel
Marble Crystal River Chamber
Mesa Verde Country Tourism Office
Prowers County
Creede/Mineral County Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center — (Silver Thread Colorado Scenic & Historic Byway)
Town of Lyons
Town of Silverthorne (Towns of Silverthorne & Dillon)
Towns of Minturn and Red Cliff
Visit Colorado Springs
Visit Durango
Visit Estes Park
Visit Fort Collins
Visit Moffat County
Visit Ouray

The OBT was also awarded gold-level status from the Colorado Concierge Recognition Program. 

Staff with the OBT joins more than 700 other "Colorado Concierges" who have committed to providing "Colorado-style hospitality" throughout the state. 

Visit Montrose, a division of the city's OBT department, joined the Town of Vail, Visit Colorado Springs, and the Welcome Center at Mesa Verde, to name a few, as the latest graduating class of the program. 

To qualify as a Colorado Concierge Gold Level business, at least 75 percent of employees must graduate from the Colorado Concierge training.

Each employee needed to complete six training modules: Colorado Essentials, Care for Colorado, Colorado Travel Regions, Colorado-style Customer Service, Traveler Safety, and Hunting and Fishing. Each module informs on what the Colorado Tourism Office is teaching across the state to ensure all concierges have a common message no matter where a guest may be visiting. 

"The goal is to educate all travelers on how to do Colorado right," Rhoten said.

Find more information about Visit Montrose here.

For more City news visit CityOfMontrose.org.

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