Published On: June 17, 2003
As Lake Tahoe continues to redefine itself with new Villages, infrastructure enhancements, capital investments and new owners, a New Tahoe Era is emerging. To better understand this transformation; more than 215 people attended the fourth annual SMG Lake Tahoe Tourism Conference held in South Shore.
Attendees of the all day conference learned about the Lake Tahoe tourism economy, current travel trends, the new village experience, lake-wide destination marketing strategies, national and regional media perspectives, and the key challenges and opportunities that will shape the New Tahoe Era.
While these changes are exciting they are not enough to create competitive advantage for the destination or to address the changing visitor's needs. Innovative marketing strategies, fresh ideas, new products and services by the entire Lake Tahoe community are necessary. To help encourage participation, attendees learned how to adjust their products and services to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity.
A fun incentive to motivate the community to create new products and services to match the emerging era were the first annual SMG Big Idea Awards. Individuals with innovative ideas that will help to improve the visitor's experience as well as the quality of our lives were acknowledged. Awards were presented for a new Lake Tahoe Water Trail system, a Lake Tahoe "Bicycle Friendly Community" Designation, and a Beach Development Incentive Zone. Special recognition, or the Chairman's Choice Awards, were given to the South Shore's visitors bureau, the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, for its intriguing "Blue World" advertising campaign; and the Tahoe Region Advocates for Cycling for its wind/solar/bike powered water ferry. Besides being innovative, each Big Idea could realistically be implemented and help define The New Tahoe Era. Progress on each Big Idea will be presented at next year's tourism conference.
