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New tourism marketing director hired

Dennis WebbPost Independent Staff
Kate Collins
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A woman with publishing, marketing and chamber of commerce experience has been hired as Glenwood Springs’ next tourism marketing director.Kate Collins will begin her new job Oct. 16. She replaces Stephanie Keister, who stepped down after a little less than a year on the job to become the marketing director at Schmueser Gordon Meyer, a local engineering and surveying firm.Collins founded and served as publisher for Colorado Resort Publishing, a glossy magazine division of Colorado Mountain News Media. CMNM also owns other publications in the region including the Post Independent. The division publishes Aspen Philanthropist, Mountain House & Home, and the Summit Parade of Homes magazine.She previously served as regional marketing director for CMNM.During the 1990s, as executive director, she transformed the Avon-Beaver Creek Resort Association into the more regional Vail Valley Chamber of Commerce. Other experience includes working as executive director of the Vail Valley Charitable Fund and in public relations for Vail Associates.Collins, who has four children from ages 4-9, is engaged to Glenwood resident Matthew Mullally and moved to Glenwood Springs this summer. She enjoys area activities such as rafting, skiing, mountain biking and swimming in the Hot Springs Pool.”All those great attractions and things to do are not a hard thing to promote and represent,” she said.The city of Glenwood Springs contracts with the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association to do tourism marketing, using more than $500,000 a year generated by a lodging tax. That’s a lot of money for tourism marketing, Collins said. “With that we should be able to do a lot, so we have to be very judicious and thoughtful about the choices we make in how we utilize those funds,” she said.Last year, some City Council members and tourism industry representatives questioned how the chamber was spending that money.”I think those things are cyclical and I think they occur because everybody is really trying to do a good thing and they’re trying to be responsible and trying to be effective, and occasionally things really do need to be looked at,” Collins said.But she said she thinks the chamber is a great organization under chief executive officer Marianne Virgili’s leadership.”I’m looking forward to making a contribution in Glenwood,” she said.Virgili said the chamber is fortunate to have hired someone with Collins’ experience and integrity.”I think that the Glenwood Springs lifestyle and the job are going to be perfectly suited for her family and she’s going to be able to hit the ground running and just continue this upward trend that we’ve had over the last year,” Virgili said.Also joining the chamber is Krista Kaufman, who will head up special events, including Strawberry Days. She formerly worked in sales, catering and events at the Hotel Colorado.She replaces Vicky Daulton, who now works at American National Bank.Contact Dennis Webb: 945-8515, ext. 516dwebb@postindependent.com


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