Destinations Council Destiny Awards > "The Road Less Traveled"

Tag Responsibly – Take the Aspen Pledge

About This Entry:

Overtourism is a term heard more often in our industry by both visitors and locals. As a Destination Management Organization, it is our responsibility to manage the balance of promoting the resort while maintaining its charm. Although Instagram has been a great way to promote our destination, the “Instagram effect” has resulted in visitors seeking out adventures and sites that are over their heads, simply to get the perfect shot. Because of backcountry accidents, deaths, and disrespect of wildlife and the environment, we created the Aspen Pledge and How To: Aspen. These campaigns were designed to educate visitors on the dos and don’ts of how to recreate responsibly.

Overcrowding, trail damage, litter, and encroachment on native species are threatening our landscape, putting people and animals at risk. Social media, while a great way to share experiences, is driving more people to places which are unable to support the rise in traffic. As a destination surrounded by natural beauty, we enjoy posting scenic images on social media, however, we felt pushback from our local community who did not want us to promote expert terrain or reveal their secret recreation spots. We wanted to do more in addition to our existing campaigns and blog posts encouraging dispersion. We created the generic geo-tag on Instagram, Tag Responsibly – Take the Aspen Pledge. Our target audience of visitors and locals are both encouraged to embrace this new geotag. The goal being to reduce human impact on Aspen’s landscape. This tag allows Instagrammers to post their beautiful backcountry images, not reveal their exact location while still promoting it as the Aspen area, as well as giving a direct call to action to take the Aspen Pledge. When visitors want to find a backcountry location, we encourage hiring local guides to safely lead the way. This keeps the general Instagrammer from getting in over their heads on expert terrain, protects the natural beauty of off-the-beaten-path terrain, and consequently gets the motivated explorer to connect with local guides. Geo-tagging social media photos responsibly supports our efforts to keep Aspen’s natural beauty intact for future generations.

Campaign Strategy:

To get the word out on this campaign, we used our Instagram presence and social advertisements, local influencers, and media outlets to encourage the use of this tag and generate traffic back to our “How to Aspen” campaign. As social media continues to change how people plan and travel, we have continued to work closely with our local influencer community to help promote and embrace the Tag Responsibly initiative. Our goal in working with local influencers is to have them responsibly share the natural beauty of Aspen with their followers and inspire their followers to do the same on their visits. Social advertisements on Facebook and Instagram were also used, targeting residents and visitors in the area, which directed back to our “How To” campaign on our website.

We work with our local influencers, which largely consist of nature photographers, to be brand ambassadors for this campaign and consistently use this generic geo-tag in Instagram posts or stories explaining the importance of conserving Aspen’s beautiful places. We are continuing this initiative, with partnerships with locals Tess Weaver @tesswstrokes and Sam Axness @samaxness. Our presence on social media has trickled into local influencers using the tag without a partnership. We were thrilled to see Olympian Simi Hamilton use the tag when he was off-season training in the backcountry of his hometown!

Our methodology was that social media users will see this tag on general nature shots, backcountry recreation, and lesser-known sites instead of a specified location on @AspenCo social posts in addition to local influencers who use the tag. To evaluate the effectiveness when users choose to tag responsibly, we are determining that they are supporting the sustainably-minded culture of Aspen and being champions of our Aspen Pledge.

Results:

Our Aspen Pledge, which bridges together the generic tag responsibly geotag and “How To Aspen” campaign, has gained national media attention in Conde Nast Traveler, The Washington Post, TravelAge West, The Points Guy, The New York Times, and multiple local media outlets. After launching the Tag Responsibly – Take the Aspen Pledge geotag, visits to the Aspen Pledge landing page on our website increased 45.31% compared to the previous month.

We currently have 831 organic posts using the tag and our top post has 52,814 impressions. We project to increase these numbers in the next year by dedicating a budget of $1,000 per month for the campaign and having consistent brand ambassadors.

Overcrowding at the Maroon Bells scenic area has also been addressed in our sustainability and dispersion efforts. We took part in a private/public partnership with Pitkin County, City of Aspen, Roaring Fork Transportation Authority, and Aspen Skiing Company to implement shuttle and parking reservations to the scenic area, facilitating over 55,000 shuttle visitors and over 5000 car permits in the 2020 season. In a follow-up survey, only 10.7% of respondents rated the area as crowded. The visitor satisfaction was extremely favorable. In the first week of reservation booking availability for the 2021 season, 4,312 shuttle tickets were purchased and 7,469 parking reservations booked.

In further evolving our efforts in sustainability, we recently partnered with Pledge for the Wild, a group of like-minded mountain towns that have come together to empower visitors to give back to the wild places that are frequented by travelers. As a destination surrounded by wilderness, we are inspired to protect our natural lands and wildlife. ACRA is also working on a project to raise funds and awareness for our partnership with Pledge for the Wild by partnering with local artists and distributing Field Notes, pocket notebooks, in our local retail shops. A portion of the proceeds will be going to our Pledge for the Wild beneficiary, in 2021, the Independence Pass Foundation.

Why This Is A Finalist: 

The Tag Responsibly campaign was clearly outlined and had a clear link to the objectives of avoiding overtourism, dispersing visitors, and encouraging responsible behavior. Their target audience was both visitors and locals, especially those who used Instagram. Beyond just promoting the generic geo-tag, they also linked it to the Aspen Pledge to help visitors learn about how to protect the landscape. I also appreciated that they connected more adventurous travelers with local guides so they didn't end up in unsafe situations. The methodology was clearly outlined and specific partner influencers were named.

They described the channels they used to encourage use of the geo-tag and how this would be replicated organically. It is a perfect strategy to use in a destination with a lot of backcountry that may be dangerous for inexperienced travelers.