Taos Destination Stewardship in Action
Taos has been a destination for hundreds to thousands of years. People have long come here to trade, to paint, to learn, to be humbled by the light and landscapes. However, being a place that draws people from around the world brings both opportunity and pressure.
How we meet that balance says much about who we are, and working towards that balance is at the heart of Destination Stewardship - a global movement and belief that a community can welcome visitors without losing what makes it special.
In 2022, Taos began its own Destination Stewardship movement - which led to the Taos Destination Stewardship Plan (DSP) published in 2024. Unlike some plans that gather dust on a shelf - this one is different.
The strength of the Destination Stewardship Plan lies in its authors, and that it is not a checklist. Written by over 3,330 voices of Taos, gathered through the Tourism Revisited Survey - those voices spoke of the desire to see equity, collaboration, preservation, and stewardship - inform how we approach tourism and the required balance between opportunity and pressures. And as a living framework, Taos Destination Stewardship goals and supporting initiatives are meant to be shaped over time and advanced collectively across silos and sectors. The DSP goals, unlike those of business which prioritize growth and competition, center the goals of a community including Inclusion & Equity, Stewardship Communications, Workforce Stability, and Collaborative Management - to name a few.
Quiet yet Powerful - What Taos Destination Stewardship Looks Like in Action
Advancing these goals is not simple, quick or loud. Over the past year, Taos Destination Stewardship has looked like many things:
The Destination Stewardship Network (DSN) - a coalition of neighbors, business owners, artists, nonprofits, tribal and local governments - has spent the past year doing the quiet work that real change requires. We’ve met month after month to listen, learn, and build small, practical steps that carry the plan forward.
Destination Stewardship looks like the Town’s Tourism Department aligns its campaigns with community values - using local photographers, local stories, and messaging that invites respect, not consumption.
It looks like the County opening grant programs so local businesses can access lodgers’ tax funds to market their work to locals and visitors and build resilience.
It looks like students and mentors at UNM-Taos HIVE, learning to turn creativity into technology and livelihoods.
It looks like local nonprofits teaching youth how to fly fish, build trails, plan festivals, make adobes, and manage land with care. All skills that root people here in experience and relationships.
It looks like mapping cultural assets and naming cultural treasures to inform local planning and development now and in the future.
It looks like artists, farmers, and cultural organizers sharing what they know, often without fanfare, but always with generosity.
And it looks like ordinary people, both locals and visitors - walking the plaza, volunteering at an events, attending a council meeting or listening with curiosity over shouting complaints - because they believe in Taos as both a home and a host - a place to let change you, instead of a place to change.
Part of the Work - Collaborative Design & Implementation of Pilot Initiatives
With financial support from both the Town and County, and countless hours from volunteer cross-sector Action Team members, this fall two community-designed initiatives are taking shape under Goal 2 of the DSP, Inclusion and Equity:
The Tourism Innovators Cohort, guided by the Product Development Action Team and UNM–Taos HIVE, will support five to ten local entrepreneurs and cultural leaders developing place-based experiences that benefit both residents and visitors. Participants will receive specialized support, seed funding, and the space to connect with other local innovators on ideas that reflect the real Taos.
The Cultural Events Fund, built by the Cultural Events Action Team and hosted by Taos Mainstreet, will invest in ten to fifteen community-led events that celebrate heritage, belonging, and responsible visitation. A combination of micro-grants and training will help local organizers bring forward the kinds of gatherings that strengthen connection between people and place.
Together, these efforts will circulate over $100,000 in local investment, growing from the ground up, while extending engagement to parts of our community historically left out from the benefits of tourism.
Why Taos Destination Stewardship Matters
Tourism sustains about one in four local jobs and contributes millions each year to our local economy through lodgers tax, energy and local business. Yet the benefits and burdens that come from tourism, are not shared equally. For example, though a majority of Taos County residents are Hispanic or Latino, many said they experience more of the costs - housing pressures, gentrification and low ownership in tourism enterprises - than the rewards.
Equity and inclusion are tough topics to grapple with. And no one pretends two pilot initiatives will solve the issues. True stewardship demands that we face these truths and act accordingly and collectively. These new projects, and the Network itself, are a few ways we’re doing that: keeping ownership, creativity, and decision-making local through cross sector investment and collaborative decision making.
A Network, Not a Hierarchy
Unlike a traditional department or organization, the DSN is a web of relationships. The Network doesn’t replace anyone’s efforts; it connects them. The Town, the County, Taos Pueblo and local residents and organizations each carry and contribute to the work through time, knowledge, investment and trust.
An invitation
A great place to live is, by nature, a great place to visit - but not the other way around.
If we care for this place as home first, tourism will follow in a way that strengthens, rather than strains, what we love. That is what Destination Stewardship looks like in action: patient, steady, shared and rooted in resilience.
Destination Stewardship happens with all of us. Want to get involved? You can join a monthly Network meeting, nominate someone for the Tourism Innovators Cohort, or apply for the Cultural Events Fund. You can also simply reach out with a question or an idea, all are welcome. The work is ongoing, and it belongs to all of us.
— Jessie Hook is the Manager of the Taos Destination Stewardship Network, which is hosted by Taos Mainstreet. Contact: destinationstewardship@taosmainstreet.org for more information