Welcome Home campaign reaches out to invite second home owners to relocate

Local towns and Eagle County community organizations are coming together to launch a new marketing campaign aimed at inviting second-home owners to relocate to the area. Here’s the full press release:

As a community dependent on tourism, Eagle County has been severely impacted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly half of the local workforce provides services for the tourism industry. While it’s unknown when tourists will return to the area, it’s clear there needs to be a thoughtful strategy to quickly bring much-needed revenue into the community.

Enter the Welcome Home campaign, which invites second-home owners to “come here, live here, stay here.”

By law, second-home owners enjoy the same rights and privileges as local residents, and it is a wonderful time of year for all residents to live in Eagle County.

“We are thrilled to invite our second-home owners to spend the summer season in Eagle County,” said Chris Romer, president and CEO of the Vail Valley Partnership. “Our second-home owners are both emotionally and financially invested in the area and can help support our community and our businesses. We welcome them with open arms, knowing they contribute to making our community whole.”

Thirty-eight percent of Eagle County’s housing units are vacant. Filling those homes will help to boost local spending in the area and help stabilize the local economy. Along with a new landing page, the initiative involves individual outreach in the form of personal phone calls, mailed invitations and targeted email campaigns from area organizations.

“Our community has done a great job slowing the spread of COVID-19 through teamwork and collaboration with numerous partners across Eagle County,” said Heath Harmon, director of Eagle County public health and environment. “The same partnerships are even more important now as we work to support the economic, physical, and emotional health of our community while learning to live with the ongoing presence of the virus.”

Those who choose to return, or relocate, to Eagle County can do so knowing that systems are in place to maintain healthy living.

“As the community’s healthcare system, Vail Health is prepared to welcome second-home owners back into our area and has the capacity to accommodate the Valley’s physical and behavioral health needs,” said Vail Health President and CEO Will Cook. “Vail Health’s Clean Clinic Promise is our commitment to provide a safe environment for people to seek the care they need and deserve while in our community.”

Touting Eagle County’s quick and strategic response to the pandemic along with the area’s world-class medical care and access to unspoiled nature, the message to second-home owners is clear: You belong here. And it doesn’t need to be your “second” home.

“Recognizing that many people can work from anywhere these days, we want to invite our second-home owners to join us and retreat to the beauty of the Colorado Rockies,” said Jeremy Rietmann, the manager for the Town of Gypsum. “There’s never been a better time to retreat to a low-density location with world-class amenities, a robust health care system, and a lifestyle that nurtures the soul.”