Whitefish Sustainable Tourism Management Plan Standing Committee

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM MANAGEMENT PLAN STEERING MINUTES TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH VIA WEBEX 1) CALL TO ORDER AND INTRODUCTIONS Lauren Oscilowski, Chair, called the meeting to order. Members present were Michelle Howke, Rhonda Fitzgerald, Dylan Boyle, Alan Myers-Davis, Andy Feury, Craig Workman, Mariah Joos, Nick Polumbus, Brian Schott joined at 1:30. Guest speaker Mike Bento. 2) MINUTES- July 20, 2020 Alan made a motion, seconded by Mariah to approve the minutes. The motion carried. 3) WHTIEFISH BRAND GUIDELINES & MESSAGING: Mike Bento Lauren reported, she and Dylan presented to the City Council the Plan in October. At that meeting it was decided to continue the committee up to October the beginning of October 2021, as needed to work more on the action items of the plan and reprioritize the items due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dylan and the CVB have been working on a good part of it due to the Montana Aware Safety Campaign. Some grant funds have been received to message how to safely travel. Now they are adding a second messaging coming from the state that integrates well locally and want to keep doing in the future, which is the Recreate Responsibly piece we are calling Explore Responsibly. One of the action items identified in the plan is to relook at the Whitefish brand guidelines. The CVB has worked with Mike Bento about four or five years ago. Andy touched on a few things from the Council Work Session, there was apprehension on some of the Councilors parts were actionable items were not what they would have like to have seen them. There were some calls for they would like to some metrics that would define when enough is enough. Those were addressed well by Dylan and Lauren during the Public Hearing for adoption. Education is a huge piece. Marketing to the right people and get the messaging out. The Council came to the fact that a lot of the action items are the education pieces. Mike Bento asked: Q. What does it mean to be sustainable? A. Not degrading the quality of life of the residents. Not having a big environmental impact. We have layered community, economic stature. What makes us unique as a destination or tourist town  we never thought of ourselves as that. We are an open and welcoming place. We are excited for what we get to do and willing to share it. Sustainability is not wanting to flip off every car from Texas and California and wishing them to go home. There is a large segment of the community that is starting to feel that way. At that point tourism is not sustainable. Q. What do you want to sustain? A. Maintain the integrity of community, people who live here are invested in the community and have the same set of values. People of the community are generally nice all the time. The character of the community is dependent on the ability for small businesses, locally owned, to survive year around. Q. Ten years from now, what will Whitefish need to have accomplished to be a healthy more sustainable community? A. Improve traffic flow through town. Stretch out jobs to full year rather than seasonal. Visitors uphold what our community wants to see. Glacier National Park better manage visitors and their experience. Q. What is the visitors roll in sustaining Whitefish? A. Courtesy while driving, inherit small town driving habits. During COVID the visitors had a sense of entitlement. During non-pandemic times, visitors chose Whitefish for the same reason residents live here. Act like a local, relaxation, slow down. Overall respect for our community. Q. What are the NO’s Whitefish has embraced and adopted? A. No development of state trust lands in our community, Haskill Basin Conservation. No franchise businesses in the general business core, no unshielded light ordinance, restrictive sign code, no motorized watercraft on the Whitefish River, no to permit development on the lakeshore within the lakeshore protection zone. Q. How does a visitor or prospective visitor learn about any of that? A. We were able to accomplish many of those with public private partnerships, it was things we wanted as a community. It is the soul of the community. Q. What are the NO’s for visitors? A. The trash, the environmental degradation in outdoor recreation. Do not make assumptions. Do not come here to be cool, come here because you are cool. We do not want to be a hash tag. Q. What won’t visitors be able to do as part of keeping Whitefish sustainable? A. Not to be able to rent a short-term rental in a neighborhood, probably not be able to drive up Logan Pass in personal vehicles whenever they want, limits on the rivers. The goal should be to go a little further. 4) STMP PRIORITY ACTION ITEMS: Dylan Boyle Some of the priority action items in the Plan are ongoing, such as the education and outreach. Currently there is a COVID-19 Task Force, a partnership with local business owners, the school district, North Valley Hospital, Whitefish Mountain Resort, the CVB and the City to talk the community about safety messaging. The CVB received a grant from the Montana Office of Tourism for safety messaging. They also allowed a second messaging specific to recreating responsibly. CVB filmed a recreate responsibly video/photo shoot. They also did responsible visitation in terms of shop around town. Explore  Responsibly boiler plate: Plan Ahead, Keep Space, Be Respectful, Protect the Outdoors, Explore Locally. The values statement ‘Be A Friend Of The Fish’ was created: • Ignite inclusive conversations and show mutual respect for locals and visitors. • Protect public lands, respect private lands, and always give wildlife the right of way. • Recreate responsibly, be prepared for anything, and have a backup plan. • Fuel up at local businesses. Our merchants, restaurants, and hotels rely on your support! • Walk, ride, or hop on the S.N.O.W bus before you drive. • Wait for fall, winter, or spring to visit. Experience natural beauty with less crowds. • Share your photos responsibly. Preserve the landscape rather than piling up likes. • Help us all stay healthy by observing local health guidelines. • Recycle and be responsible with your waste (TP too). Leave No Trace! Members of the committee would like to include messaging to slow down, driving, patients in lift lines, take a breather, etc. Dylan will send a survey to the committee to rank the priority action items in the Plan, to discuss how we take those on. 5) ADJOURNMENT