Visit La Junta Prioritizes Cultural Heritage Collaboration
Destination turns CTO strategic planning workshops into action
When community partners in La Junta joined workshops to develop the CTO’s Destination Stewardship Strategic Plan, they identified a shared interest in promoting the area’s history and heritage. This priority was written into the Canyons and Plains Regional Destination Stewardship Plan as a dedicated strategy to “safeguard and promote cultural heritage through collaboration.”
Now, as a participant in the CTO’s Destination Blueprint program, which offers 100 hours of consulting to advance destination stewardship efforts, Visit La Junta is exploring ways to partner with the National Park Service (NPS) to further elevate local heritage. The NPS operates three significant sites on Colorado’s southeastern plains—Amache National Historic Site, Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site and the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site—each within 90 miles of La Junta.
Yet the new cultural heritage effort is not Visit La Junta’s first foray into destination stewardship. Tapping support from numerous CTO grants and programs over the years, this one-person tourism department also created a unique offering of tarantula tourism to uplift the area’s natural resources, in concert with its community’s wishes.
As implementation begins for the CTO’s Destination Stewardship Strategic Plans, Visit La Junta offers a model for how early-stage destinations can embed stewardship principles into a tourism strategy—and how to translate stakeholder direction into actionable next steps.
Efforts to Bring Connectivity and Collaboration
As the CTO gathered input for its Destination Stewardship Strategic Plan, it conducted two rounds of regional workshops to gain insight into stakeholder needs across this diverse state. Cultural heritage emerged as a community priority during the spring and fall regional sessions held in La Junta.
When Visit La Junta kicked off its Destination Blueprint program with a community visioning and action planning workshop in the fall of 2024, the theme of wanting to connect the park sites and collaborate with land management agencies rose to the top. The Destination Blueprint session brought together key perspectives, with representatives from the three national historic sites, the U.S. Forest Service, the Visit La Junta Tourism Board, History Colorado and the National Park Conservation Association, as well as a history teacher from the Air Force Academy.
While the National Park Service continues larger conversations around how to interpret historic park sites, Visit La Junta is convening discussions on how to connect and promote the three local sites, educate community members and potential visitors on their historical importance, and encourage people to visit them.
These discussions also include planning around the America 250 – Colorado 150 commemoration to be held in 2026, honoring America’s 250th anniversary of becoming a nation and Colorado’s 150th anniversary of becoming a state. As national parks will play a large role in this celebration, Visit La Junta is envisioning collaborative ways to connect the area’s three sites—through itineraries or other projects—to mark the anniversary, a historic occasion in its own right.
Promoting Tarantula Tourism
While Visit La Junta’s cultural heritage attractions are open all year, the destination enhanced its tourism efforts by promoting a seasonal tarantula trek. From late summer to early fall, the area’s tarantulas are active for mating season. The females are burrowed in, and the males traverse the territory looking for a mate. As a result, visitors can enjoy the off-the-beaten-path experience of seeing spiders on the move. Each year’s trek culminates in Tarantula Fest (set for Sept. 26-27, 2025), with a parade, tarantula tours, an education pavilion, art, food and drink, and a showing of the movie Arachnophobia.
The concept of tarantula tourism began to take shape in 2018 when the CTO awarded Visit La Junta a CRAFT 101 destination development program. The goal was to promote tarantula tourism in a responsible manner, especially considering that while La Junta is surrounded by 400,000 acres of federal land, public lands are interspersed with private property.
“We didn’t want to change the landscape of the community,” said Pamela Denahy, the director of tourism and economic development for the City of La Junta. “We wanted to encourage tarantula tourism in a thoughtful way, and needed to identify the most responsible and intentional way of promotion.” Community discussions pointed the way.
Intending to educate tourists to avoid trespassing, to be good stewards of the land and to view the tarantulas respectfully, Visit La Junta added a page to its website on how to view the tarantulas. Next, the Associated Press added a story on visiting the spiders to the wire, and tarantula tourism was born.
A CTO Tourism Management Grant awarded in 2022 expanded the spiders’ digital presence from a single web page to a microsite within the Visit La Junta site. The additional guidance, created to inspire responsible and respectful visitation, includes safety information, maps and helpful tips on how to see the tarantulas. As cell phone service can be limited in the area, the grant also enabled Visit La Junta to create an infographic booklet with viewing tips and a map, plus a QR code to the website.
Visit La Junta tapped the CTO’s Destination Development Mentor Program, awarded in 2023, to further inform its messaging. To learn about current visitor education needs, the destination initiated a working group, including private property owners, staff from local and county law enforcement and state patrol, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the U.S. Forest Service. Together, they identified key issues and devised fun, effective talking points.
Visit La Junta: Destination Stewardship Leaders
In this peaceful corner of Colorado, Visit La Junta is successfully advancing destination stewardship, supported by a small yet dedicated team, committed tourism partners, and the guidance of the CTO. Together, they are preserving Colorado’s legacy by protecting its natural wonders, communities, and cultural heritage for future generations.
Share Your Success Story
Do you have a destination stewardship success story to share? We’d love to hear about the impactful work you’re doing in Colorado! Please reach out to the CTO and let us know how you’re making a difference.
