Collaboration Boosts Sustainability in Breckenridge
Partnerships engage visitors and build sustainable community practices
Breckenridge is famous not only for its world-class skiing and scenic summer recreation, but also for its sustainability efforts. In 2021, the town became the third destination in the country to be certified through a Global Sustainable Tourism Council-accredited program.
The Breckenridge Tourism Office (BTO) serves as a lead partner in uniting the community around destination stewardship, through initiatives such as eliciting residents’ opinions on tourism, supporting sustainability initiatives, creating responsible stewardship resources for visitors and collaborating with local businesses.
In doing so, the BTO helps to advance recommendations in the CTO’s Statewide Destination Stewardship Strategic Plan, as well as the CTO’s Regional Destination Stewardship Strategic Plan for the Rockies Playground travel region: to encourage responsible visitation in our communities, engaging visitors and residents.
Collaborating on Direction Is the Key to Sustainability Success
Throughout multiple planning processes, the BTO has found that collaboration is the key to success.
The organization began by seeking to understand locals’ concerns around quality of life priorities. In 2017, the BTO conducted its first resident sentiment survey, which found that all stakeholders—residents, employees, business owners, accommodation owners and second homeowners—valued the home-like feel and friendly atmosphere in the downtown corridor. In addition, 80% of respondents indicated that events add value to Breckenridge and that tourism is important to the local economy. To craft a destination management plan, the BTO followed with a separate engagement process from 2017 to 2019, involving dozens of individual interviews and community meetings.
“Robust engagement with as many community members as possible was the key to creating an impactful management plan,” said Tessa Breder, senior director of community affairs at the BTO. “Every priority the community named provided a guide to what residents were feeling, what they wanted to see, and what needed to be addressed.” The BTO continues to conduct resident sentiment surveys every two years to stay current with community needs and aspirations.
The town of Breckenridge stepped into its role as a national leader in 2021, earning a prestigious certification as a Mountain IDEAL sustainable mountain resort destination. Mountain IDEAL is a sustainable destination management standard that is formally recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, which manages global standards for sustainable travel and tourism. Breckenridge initiatives include incorporating electric buses into the public transit fleet, creating accessible trails, developing business sustainability partnerships and pursuing 100% renewable electricity community-wide by 2035.
The town renewed its certification in 2024, and an extensive partnership makes these efforts possible. The BTO, Town of Breckenridge, Summit County Government, U.S. Forest Service, Vail Resorts and nonprofits Breckenridge Heritage Alliance, High Country Conservation Center and Walking Mountains Science Center joined forces on a variety of related projects.
“One of the best benefits of the certification is the local collaboration,” Breder said. “The certification process brought together a lot of people who had not worked together previously. Now we recognize that we are pursuing the same goals and are working to achieve them together.”
B Like Breckenridge Umbrella Destination Stewardship Campaign
In 2022, the BTO launched B Like Breckenridge as its overarching destination stewardship campaign. B Like Breckenridge encourages people to connect; to be thoughtful in how they interact with nature, wildlife and one another; and to preserve and protect their communities, natural environment and world.
The campaign promotes following all Leave No Trace Principles and highlights planning ahead, respecting wildlife and staying on trails. It also suggests sustainable behaviors that visitors can adopt during their stays, such as embracing carless travel, bringing shopping bags and drinking from reusable water bottles.
The BTO also encourages visitors to use the B Like Breckenridge app, a key post-arrival tool that provides bus routes, trail conditions, upcoming events and information on local businesses. A section for first-time visitors features tips on minimizing outdoor lighting, helping preserve historical artifacts found in Breckenridge, wearing sunscreen at elevation and carrying extra layers. Additional recommendations include packing out trash and not petting moose. The BTO collects data gathered at the Breckenridge Welcome Center to update the app and edit information in real time, giving customers top-level service to maximize their experience.
B Like Breckenridge Business Partnership Reaches New Audiences
A key initiative is the B Like Breckenridge Business Partnership. Now entering its third year, the partnership empowers close to 50 local businesses and organizations to adapt B Like Breckenridge messaging and share it through their own guest-facing communications.
For example, Breckenridge Grand Vacations, a real estate development and property management company, posted a social media series on using public transit and traveling well with pets. Higgles Ice Cream Shop is passionate about avoiding single-use plastics and promotes the water refill stations around Breckenridge.
“The messaging has looked entirely different for every business, depending on what is relevant for them and their guests,” said Breder. “This program offers the biggest growth point over the past couple of years. Businesses can connect with their guests in ways that the BTO is not able to, such as hotel elevators and TV channels within rooms.”
Resource Wise Program Enables Local Businesses to be Sustainable
While the B Like Breckenridge partnership features stewardship messaging and communication resources for businesses to use with customers, it also complements the work of another green business program, where the Town of Breckenridge and three other local governments partner with the nonprofit High Country Conservation Center. Resource Wise helps businesses reduce energy use, carbon emissions and waste while improving recycling, composting and purchasing practices. The program offers assessments, education and recommendations to help business partners increase sustainability operations.
Next Up: Measuring Behavior Change
With many exceptional destination stewardship programs now established, the BTO is currently working to expand its research, previously focused on brand awareness, to include metrics that measure overall local behavior change. Examples of success might include seeing improved trail conditions and increases in free rides on local buses—showing that collaboration around sustainability brings positive change and experiences.
Share Your Story
Does your organization or community have a destination stewardship success story to share? Please tell the CTO about your project.
