Stewards of the Springs: How Visit Colorado Springs Is Protecting What It Promotes
Learn how Visit Colorado Springs used resident sentiment data to build a coalition of land managers and outdoor partners, launch the destination's first sustainability-focused advertising campaign, and redefine what it means for a tourism organization to take care of its community.
Colorado Springs is an outdoor wonderland. The second largest city in Colorado sits at the base of the Rocky Mountains' Front Range, where iconic natural landmarks draw visitors and define daily life for residents: the towering red rock formations of Garden of the Gods, a sacred Native American gathering site; the 14,000-foot summit of Pikes Peak that inspired "America the Beautiful"; and Paint Mines Interpretive Park, where clay hoodoos look like the surface of an alien world.
But with 25.6 million visitors a year, that love requires care. We spoke with Melissa Williams, Director of Marketing at Visit Colorado Springs, about how the organization is working to protect the natural resources that define the destination so they can be enjoyed for generations to come.
Gathering the Experts
Rather than act alone, Visit COS launched the Pikes Peak Destination Stewardship Network in 2025, a quarterly convening of the organizations that manage the region's outdoor spaces day to day. The group brings together the Garden of the Gods Foundation, Rocky Mountain Field Institute, Trails & Open Spaces Coalition, Fountain Creek Watershed District, and nearly a dozen other outdoors organizations.
Lindsay Cluckey, Marketing Coordinator at Visit COS and holder of a master's degree in Tourism Management, Nature-Based Tourism, spearheaded the network's formation. The committee's purpose was straightforward: ask the people closest to the land what they actually need, then translate those answers into action.
Getting buy-in turned out to be easier than expected. Partners were eager to collaborate, and some even invited additional organizations to join, resulting in packed rooms and overflow sessions hosted via Zoom.
With the network in place, Visit COS was positioned to act on what it heard. As the region's destination organization, it had something many of its nonprofit partners didn't.
“We have the size and the audience and the budget to actually be able to go and execute these things,” Williams said.
The Root of the Problem
What the committee surfaced wasn't a need for more trash cans or signage. It was an education gap. Visitors and residents alike weren't aware of basic principles: that a discarded banana peel disrupts local ecosystems, that stepping off trail can destroy foliage that may never grow back, and that feeding wildlife puts both animals and humans at risk.
Through months of meetings and discussion, Cluckey and the committee distilled the network's findings into a focused set of priorities. Visit COS then worked with video production team Ragtag to develop the destination's first-ever advertising campaign focused entirely on sustainable recreation education. From the start, the team knew the tone had to strike a careful balance: educational without being preachy, direct without scolding. The goal was to invite people to care for the place they were visiting, not shame them for what they didn't already know. The creative team explored multiple approaches before landing on one that felt right: Junior Rangers as the face and narrators.
“We really wanted it to be something that no one could misinterpret and that didn't feel shameful,” Williams said.
The campaign launched in June 2026 and will run through August, targeting both visitors and locals, while driving each to a landing page with actionable resources and ways to get involved.
Beyond the Beaten Path
The stewardship work also connects to a broader effort to rethink how Visit COS promotes the region. The organization recently overhauled its approach to neighborhood and community promotion across its website and social channels, highlighting 25 distinct areas to encourage visitors and locals to explore beyond the familiar hotspots.
The team went into each community to meet with business owners, residents, and local leaders, asking what made their area special. Condensing 77 neighborhoods into 25 groupings generated plenty of debate, but it also instilled pride.
“Some of our best cultural cuisines are not in the places that you would expect,” Williams said. “You would miss out on this incredible food if you didn't know where to look.” The result is a promotion strategy that supports small businesses, serves visitors with better recommendations, and eases pressure on the most heavily trafficked spaces.
On the Horizon
For Williams, the motivation behind all of this work comes down to a simple philosophy: “Leave it better than we found it.”
That shift is already shaping what comes next. Visit COS plans to conduct a follow-up survey in fall 2026 to measure whether awareness and behavior have shifted. A stewardship toolkit is in development to extend education through high-touch visitor contact points like hotel lobbies, restaurants, and attractions. And the team has bigger ambitions ahead, including a pledge program that would pair visitor commitments with tangible give-back actions like donations to local conservation organizations or native plantings.
For other destinations wondering where to start, Williams's advice is simple: bring the right people into the room and listen.
“Get an Avengers team together,” she said. “Check your ego at the door and listen to what their needs are.”
Visit Colorado Springs didn't start with a campaign. They started with a question. The campaign was the answer.
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