At a community-wide pow-wow on Tuesday, I was glad to hear about the need to better embrace Truckee as part of a *past due* rethinking of a tourism plan for our county.
I’ve always found it odd that we wouldn’t welcome a city — in our own backyard, no less — that has successfully reinvented itself. We could learn something.
My family and I have been driving through Truckee for decades, and it used to be just a pitstop. Now it’s a destination.
In fact, Truckee was just named one of the best small towns by Sunset magazine, as I blogged earlier. People in Truckee work together.
Truckee has branded itself as an outdoor playground and for being “eco-friendly.” It also has a straightforward, two-pronged tourism plan that works: with a visitor’s bureau (to attract tourists) and a chamber (an advocate for merchants).
Down here, where being a county government seat helps keep us afloat (and masks our economic deficiencies), we’re often too insular. We also have too many chambers, downtown associations and tourism-related groups — often working at cross purposes.
I hope that changes soon. To compete with other small communities, we need to work together to embrace change and build a more diverse economy.
