Explore Whitefish shifts mission while launching community sustainability fund

Once just a town with a ski hill and a lake, Whitefish has become a top tourist destination. With that has come economic benefits, but as visitation has increased at a rapid pace particularly in recent years it’s also placed a burden on the town.

Explore Whitefish is responding to the pressures of visitation with a formal shift in its mission by focusing on community sustainability and responsible tourism, including an initiative aimed at assisting with affordable housing through adjusting the voluntary assessment collected by its business members.

Dylan Boyle, executive director of Explore Whitefish, said the newest initiatives aim to bolster economic and community sustainability.

“We’re really working to make sure that we’re aligning the activities with community sustainability and economic vitality, while also protecting our natural environment,” Boyle said. “We’re aimed at educating visitors about best practices while they’re on the ground here, but also inspiring travelers who care about preserving our destination’s character.”

The voluntary fee of 1% known as the Tourism Promotion Assessment is being shifted to a Community Sustainability Fund. The fee is added to lodging, restaurants, and transportation receipts by Explore Whitefish member businesses.

Allocations from the fund up to $75,000 are now set to be directed toward Housing Whitefish, the nonprofit arm of the Whitefish Housing Authority, to support grant writing for affordable housing projects. Initially, the commitment is for one year, but the hope is to provide funds in the future also.

“We’re excited to partner with them and help them leverage more funds to do their work,” Boyle said. “We’re hoping to see a big return on investment for our community from that.”

The redirection to a new fund aligns with Explore Whitefish’s larger shift in its mission, Boyle notes.

While details still have to be hammered out, the goal is to begin providing funds to Housing Whitefish as soon as possible.

“We are grateful to Explore Whitefish to help address the shortage of affordable housing that is critical to our community sustainability,” said Lori Collins, executive director of the Housing Authority. “This is a reinvestment in the people who live and work here.”

Funds from the voluntary fee will still support ongoing efforts of Explore Whitefish including its own grant program, the Friend of the Fish education campaign and providing emergency communication resources in partnership with the City of Whitefish for events like wildfire and has been done throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roughly five years ago, Explore Whitefish and the city began working together on the idea that there was a need to manage tourism thus creating the Sustainable Tourism Management Plan adopted in 2020. The purpose of the plan is to “promote sustainable community-based tourism development that is beneficial to community members, employees, and visitors.”

“Through some good foresight, an extensive public process, a ton of work from a volunteer committee, we were able to see that approved,” Boyle said. “Now we’re really implementing these initiatives.”

Explore Whitefish’s current campaign “For the Love of the Wild” looks to inspire visitors who share the same values as residents of Whitefish and speaks to protecting special places for future generations while also promoting responsible recreation and educates visitors on best practices.

Boyle says the days of typical marketing promotions for Whitefish are gone.

“We are having a lot of honest conversations with community members about how we can best protect a place like Whitefish and add to our quality of life,” he said.

When the nonprofit tourism bureau was created roughly 15 years ago its goal was to promote Whitefish beyond the summer months. A piece of that work remains to inspire travel for when visitation is the lowest while redirecting potential travelers away from the peak seasons.

Hotels here hover around or below 50% occupancy from October through April, the organization notes. Thus, Explore Whitefish continues to market the off-season months, but through campaigns educating visitors about best practices and preserving special places for future generations.

“We want to inspire visitors to come when the businesses need that business while normalizing sustainable travel and recreating responsibly,” Boyle notes.

While Explore Whitefish for several years now has been moving in the direction of destination stewardship with the goal of actively managing visitors through education campaigns, rolling out some of the other new initiatives is going to happen more slowly over time. Conversations are still ongoing about including other potential partnerships in the community.

“Change isn’t going to be happening overnight,” Boyle said. “This is going to be a strategic process, but we’re in a really good position to be really thoughtful about how do we inspire visitors that have the values we have in Whitefish.”

For more information, visit SustainableWhitefish.com.

For more information, visit SustainableWhitefish.com.