Lake Chelan. Photo courtesy: Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce.
Chelan County will soon undertake a comprehensive Tourism Impact Study. It's an effort to enhance ways of promoting the Chelan and Wenatchee Valleys and what the areas offer to visitors.
"Tourism is a huge industry in all of Chelan County," said Chelan County Economic Services Director Ron Cridlebaugh. "Tourism plays an important role in our economy."
"There's amenities that we have because of tourism that as communities we may not have otherwise," Cridlebaugh said. "It's to understand the deficits we may have to enhance the visitors' experience, finding out what the tourists are doing and use that information to really guide our strategic plan."
"We want to find out what are the impacts on our resources; not just roads, but water and impacts on our law enforcement, search and rescue. We want to understand the costs associated with tourism," he added.
Chelan County Commission Chair Kevin Overbay said the study will focus on a wide variety of items, such as socioeconomic impacts and the environmental and cultural impacts of tourism in our region including various types of overnight accommodations, including short-term rentals, hotels, and camping.
Cridlebaugh said the county’s lodging tax advisory committee will ultimately make recommendations to the county commissioners. That committee already makes suggestions on where best to spend hotel-motel tax revenues to promote the county tourism economy. Revenues are said to be growing at 3-4% a year.
The Tourism Impact Study is expected to take up to a year to complete.
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