San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Tahoe rejects Fodor’s stay-away advice
“Telling people not to come doesn’t
solve problems.” Carol Chaplin, president and CEO
of Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority
When a global travel guide company tells people to “reconsider visiting” a place, it’s generally not going to sit well with people whose livelihoods depend on those visitors.
That’s what’s happened in Lake Tahoe this month, after travel authority Fodor’s urged prospective visitors to vacation elsewhere, citing overcrowding and environmental damage. Branding one of California’s premier destinations that way has, unsurprisingly, touched a nerve in an area where tourism accounts for nearly twothirds of economic output.
The Fodor’s recommendation landed just as winter ski season is ramping up, and local reactions to it range from “somewhat concerned” to “freaking out a little bit,” Tahoe tourism representatives told The Chronicle.
“It was just, wrong place, wrong time for us,” said Carol Chaplin, president and CEO of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority. “Telling people not to come doesn’t solve problems.”
If there’s a silver lining to the negative press, it’s that “this has given us a platform to amplify our messaging about the work we’ve been doing and what’s to come for Tahoe in the future,” said Tony Karwowski, North Lake Tahoe Resort Association CEO.
Issues that dogged Tahoe for
years at peak tourism periods — workforce housing shortages, traffic congestion, crowding — intensified during the pandemic and combined with wildfires to create a setting residents found almost intolerable at times. Sensing a threat to quality of life as well as the natural splendor that bolsters Tahoe’s global reputation, community leaders want to confront those problems head-on.
Those efforts are set to culminate early next year with the creation of a “destination stewardship plan” designed to reduce the overall impacts of Tahoe’s constant stream of visitors and usher in a model for “sustainable” travel. It is being crafted by a coalition of local governments, nonprofits, tourism organizations and the U.S. Forest Service, which owns most of the land in the Tahoe basin,
including popular hiking, camping and skiing areas.
“We want to put out some best practices when it comes to tourism for the entire region,” Karwowski said. “How do we incentivize people to change their behavior?”
Best practices are likely to address the full scope of the visitor experience, from discouraging the use of single-use plastics to encouraging people to visit midweek instead of during more popular weekends.
While the plan isn’t fully formed, cutting down on car travel around the lake is expected to be a focal point — not just because it alleviates congestion but because emissions are thought to be worsening pollution in the lake and threatening its famous clarity.
Despite the sentiment of the Fodor’s post, Tahoe businesses are preoccupied preparing for what will surely be a busy winter season.
As Truckee town council member and business owner Dave Polivy wrote in an email to The Chronicle, “our futures and livelihoods are much more dependent on weather, snow, smoke and housing enough employees to operate at full capacity than they are on a couple of articles in travel related publications.”