JACKSON, Wyo. — On Monday, Sept. 15, Town Council unanimously endorsed the Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board’s (JHTTB) Sustainable Destination Management Plan (SDMP) as a framework to help ensure a healthy environment, community and economy for future generations.
With travel and tourism responsible for more than 50% of Jackson Hole’s economic activity, the SMDP was launched in the the winter of 2023. The JHTTB then established a steering committee consisting of representatives from various community stakeholder groups. The committee worked to develop a five-year road map designed to guide tourism management and its impacts on the community, per the Town.
Mayor Arne Jorgensen told Buckrail that even though the SDMP has been guiding decision-making for the past three years, its longterm benefits have become more apparent in the past year, leading to the Town’s endorsement. He said that the plan’s ambassador programs and messaging, which shifted from solely promotional to educational, were positive uses of tourism dollars.
“Our endorsement was a way to send a message that this is good work and we support it,” Jorgensen said.
During the Town Council meeting, JHTTB Executive Director Crista Valentino told Councilors that the SMDP outlines different goals and strategies, including education, transportation, visitor flow management, community housing, climate action and workforce retention.
Councilor Jonathan Schechter asked how the plan would enforce the stewardship goal of maintaining a healthy environment. Valentino said that each goal in the plan recommends working with different organizations, depending upon the action needed.
“This was created as a community document,” Valentino said. “We are dispersing authority within different working groups to try to have the right people in the room to share the responsibility. As we see indicators and trends, we can go back to the Town and County. We look to use our role as more informative and look to you to put into place what we cannot implement.”
President of the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce Rick Howe added that multiple groups — the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Grand Teton National Park, the Jackson Hole Airport and others — will work together to establish clear objectives.
“There’s not an authority that takes precedent,” Howe said. “It’s definable but at the grassroots level with the force of a group of people working together.”
Councilor Kevin Regan asked to what extent does marketing factor into the SMDP. Valentino responded that sustainability and marketing “happen in parallel.”
Jorgensen voiced his support of the sustainability plan because it helps to shape the management of tourism revenue, and brings an “additional voice to the table.”
“During the [Wilson] Bridge construction, when there were significant delays and impacts to visitors, having that voice helped to get through some challenges with the Wyoming Department of Transportation,” Jorgensen said.
In 2023, the destination stewardship council was formed to continue the momentum behind the SDMP, per the Town.
