September 24, 2024 |
Photo – Announcement of survey – Courtesy Carbon County Visitors Council
The Carbon County Visitors Council is asking residents for their opinions about local amenities and attractions.
The Carbon County Visitors Council is using a portion of a $300,000 grant to the Wyoming Office of Tourism grant to come up with ways to improve visitor experiences. The Visitors Council board has created a list of projects they would like to use the money on, including moving the fossil cabin to the Medicine Bow Museum, forming an avalanche forecasting center for the Snowy Range and Sierra Madre Mountains, and performing a bike path feasibility study from Rawlins to Walcott Junction, just to name a few.
The grant money also was used to hire Saratoga resident and local business owner Cindy Loose as a Community Development Specialist. Loose is responsible for implementing the newly created Tourism Master Plan. Part of her job is to research each community in Carbon County and determine how to improve tourism.
To achieve the organization’s goal, Loose has created a resident community assessment survey.
Carbon County Visitors Council Chief Executive Officer Leslie Jefferson explained that the survey is a way to ensure that Loose is receiving as much feedback as possible.
Upon starting the survey, residents will select the closest municipality. Afterwards, Jefferson said people will be asked to rate local attractions and experiences from good to needs improvement.
For example, Hanna residents are asked to give their opinions about the town’s museum, parks, cemetery, and lodging options.
Residents are then given an opportunity to explain why they selected “Needs Improvement” for any local attractions and experiences.
Jefferson said the next set of questions are related specifically to tourism in your community.
The survey ends by asking participants to comment on the strengths, challenges, and opportunities of their town. Residents are also given a chance to join a local interest group to review and implement the survey findings
As of yesterday afternoon, about 100 surveys had been completed. Jefferson said the more people who take the survey, the more information they will have about each town.
The “Resident Community Assessment” survey closes on October 31st. Questions include which community you live in and how long you have resided there, your age and gender. It also asks participants to rate various attractions and experiences using descriptions, including, “good,” “neutral,” “needs improvement” and “don’t know.” A “Resident Community Assessment” section asks value-related questions regarding the tourism experience and quality of life. The questionnaire closes with questions about the “Strengths, Challenges and Opportunities,” about the quality of life in your town. Respondents are given the opportunity to provide detailed answers on many of the questions.
After the survey closes, Jefferson and Community Development Specialist Loose will visit each municipality to discuss the survey findings. However, Jefferson said the process is too early to know how the data will be presented to the public.
A link to the Carbon County Visitors Council Resident Community Assessment Survey will be included with this story when it is posted to the Bigfoot99 website later today.
Carbon County Visitors Council Resident Community Assessment Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/discovercc
QR Code to survey: 
