The Utah Office of Tourism considers Utah a rare gem and has launched a strategy to promote it that way

According to the Utah Office of Tourism, red emeralds are found in only a few places in the world and only grow to any substantial size in the Wah Wah Mountains of western Utah. “They are distinctive, rare and highly sought-after,” the agency says.

And that’s why the folks tasked with promoting travel to the state have named the newly released plans for accomplishing their goals the “Red Emerald Strategy.”

“The Red Emerald Strategy is an internal guiding document to help us … prioritize our promotional and product development efforts toward creating Utah travel experiences that are rarefied, distinctive, unique to Utah and highly coveted,” the Utah Office of Tourism said in its introduction of the final version of the document last month.

In the plan, the agency sets out its plans that focus “on attracting quality visitation, which means shaping traveler itineraries to promote longer stays, increased spending, dispersed visitation throughout the state and deeper engagement with local communities.” In addition to internal guidelines for the travel office, the Red Emerald Strategy also encourages a community-led vision for tourism development.

The idea behind the strategy plan was first introduced at the Utah Tourism Conference in September 2017, leading to the finalized version published in February. “This strategy has quickly become the tool for prioritizing our internal efforts and aligning with stakeholders,” the plan says in its introductory paragraph.

“The Red Emerald Strategy will establish Utah as an industry leader in responsible visitation, changing the way we market and manage our beautiful destinations,” said Vicki Varela, managing director of the state tourism office. “The strategy contains objectives drawn from months of partner and stakeholder engagement.”

In referencing the plan’s namesake gem, Varela said, “It’s highly sought-after, exquisite, rare. We made it the Red Emerald Strategy because that’s exactly what we want the tourism experience to be in the state, both for our visitors and for the communities that host our visitors. We want it to be rare and highly valued, highly-sought after, unique to Utah.”

Varela said a basis element of the plan is promoting Utah as a destination for responsible travel. The hope is that visitors will dive deeply into local culture while taking care to preserve Utah’s natural beauty and landscape. She said the plans call for promoting well-prepared, year-round visitation, focusing on the quality of the tourism experience instead of simply promoting more visitation. The results should be an experience that will bring visitors back for more future visits.

“One [of the plan’s goals] is a real priority on the quality of the visit, rather than the quantity of visitors,” Varela said. “So a quality visit is where people may stay longer, immerse themselves in everything we have to offer (and) not just bucket-listing through our national parks. Repeat visitors are the best visitors because they understand our fragile environment, especially in our red rock country. They’re willing to engage more with local communities in the ways that work for local communities. It is about long-term responsibility that ensures that our citizens and our communities like having a tourism economy.”

While acknowledging that there are certain Utah sites that attract visitors from all over the world, Varela said the Red Emerald Strategy callS for directing visitation to more destinations statewide to resolve overcrowding and environmental damage concerns.

“We have some communities that feel over-visited right now. An example is Moab. We have other communities that are hungry to welcome more visitors. An example is Carbon County. The community of Helper, in particular, is showing great leadership to become a really interesting tourism destination,” said Varela.

“Our mission is to elevate life in Utah through responsible tourism stewardship,” the Red Emerald Strategy booklet says in its introductory pages. It lists the values of the plan as creativity, which imparts meaning and vitality to the tourism promotion work; teamwork, including internal and external cooperation; family; integrity in dealing with co-workers, partners, clients and customers; and respect.

The Utah Office of Tourism said its vision is a state united in welcoming the world to experience soul-awakening adventure. The goals of the strategy also have an economic bent, as indicated by the listed objectives of the plan that include increasing the average amount each visitor will spend while in Utah, increasing the average length of stay and growing Utah’s share of global markets.

The full Red Emerald Strategy can be accessed in pdf form at https://travel.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/STRATEGIC-PLAN.pdf.