BY QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Bobbi Price may have a new job in Yachats, but she’s no stranger to town.
Her father, Rick Nyhus spent his early childhood living at the corner of Ocean View and Marine drives and once served as the Lions Club’s “Smelt King” during one of its long-ago smelt fries.
Her two young children – one who attends preschool in the Yachats Commons — are now the sixth generation of her family in south Lincoln County, dating back to homesteaders in the Alsea River valley.
Price, 39, of Waldport, was in her 13th year working as a manager and events coordinator for the Newport Chamber of Commerce when Yachats Chamber of Commerce president Linda Hetzler approached her about becoming that group’s new executive director. In August, the chamber won the city contract to operate the Visitors Center and a separate city contract for tourism marketing. Price came on board Sept. 27.
Price started her Newport chamber career by coordinating its big and popular Wine & Seafood Festival – and will retain that role for one more event – and then expanded her duties into tourism development and marketing. But she was ready for a change, and maybe to be in charge of her own organization.
“I started there when I was 25 and I didn’t necessarily want to retire there,” Price told YachatsNews. “This is an opportunity to build and grow. I’m really excited to bring my background to Yachats.”
One of the first things she had to do was offer to help organize the Yachats Mushroom Festival. Because of the chamber’s transition, it had not planned the festival it usually sponsors this year but had been cancelled the past two years because of the pandemic. Nathan Bernard of Yachats Brewing + Farmstore and Yachats resident Regina Moore wanted to organize a festival Oct. 15-16 on their own when Price offered help from the chamber.
“One person can’t do events, but they can thrive off collaboration,” Price said. “We’re working together well and sharing ideas.”
Here is a question and answer session between Price and YachatsNews.
Question: What attracted you to the Yachats position, coming from a larger organization in a larger town?
Answer: I love Yachats. My family and I tend to venture south into Yachats on the weekends. When the position presented itself to transition to the Yachats Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center, I saw it as an opportunity to grow professionally into the role of executive director, utilizing my strengths. The Yachats chamber has tremendous potential, and I look forward to being part of its growth.
Q: Obviously you have contacts from your years with the Newport chamber, but how are you getting around to folks locally and others outside Yachats to help them understand your new role?
A: I have many relationships from my time at the Newport Chamber of Commerce and am excited to see how they intersect with my new role in Yachats. I look forward to getting to know and working with Yachats’ community members and businesses. I’ll be visiting businesses, introducing myself, and listening to how the chamber can support them. I hope to build up the benefits of the hamber based on what they need for support and networking. I’ll be out spreading 2022 Yachats Mushroom Festival flyers this week and hope to start meeting people then.
Q: And, what is that role and duties as the chamber’s executive director?
A: The role will encompass various areas of work and focuses. From working with Joan Davies to build chamber membership and benefits to working with her to ensure the Visitor Center is well stocked with Yachats and regional visitor information and staffed with dedicated volunteers. Together we’ll develop updated publications to send around the state to other Visitor Centers and people looking for Yachats’ information.
A large part of the role will fulfill the tourism promotion contract the Chamber holds with the city of Yachats. With that, there is a focus on bringing back favorite community events and developing new ones that will grow into successful events that draw visitors during the off seasons. As well as negotiating advertisement placement, social media presence and ensuring the website is an excellent source of information for people planning their trip to Yachats.
Q: As someone from the outside but with a history with the community, what do you see as Yachats’ advantages or strengths when it comes to tourism and/or events? What do you think it should to address more — or its challenges?
A: Yachats truly is the Gem of the Oregon Coast, and the natural beauty is unparalleled. Nature, art, culture, and great trail systems draw the visitor looking for a place to decompress and connect to the natural world. The community members and volunteers dedicated to maintaining beautiful sidewalks and trails and supporting community events are one of Yachats biggest strengths. You can feel the dedication and pride in community from the community every time you come into it, which is remarkable. I look forward to working with these volunteers and community groups. I believe the Commons is a true asset. It is unique for a small coastal community to have such a space. The Commons provides an opportunity for mid-week/business-style and group conference-style tourism, not just significant weekend events.
Q: You have had success managing the Newport Seafood & Wine Festival. Off-season events will be one of your focuses here. How do events start, evolve, and become (hopefully) a success?
A: The best events that draw in tourism during the off-season start as special events for the community and align with the natural passions of people living in Yachats and what makes the community so unique. I see successful events being ones that highlight nature, culture, art, culinary delights, and even our favorite furry friends. All successful events take a team of community stakeholders, dedicated volunteers, and people that are knowledgeable and connected to that particular arena of event style. I hope to work closely with community members and build committees to help execute events. I encourage anyone with excellent event ideas to reach out to me. I invite all that want to join in on the event planning fun.
Q: What do you say to the people who think there are already too many tourists? How do you thread the needle of not overwhelming the town with people and maintaining its character?
A: Being born and raised on the Oregon coast, I empathize with both sides of the line with tourism. Tourism is vital to our communities and benefits our quality of life. Tourism helps keep our businesses open, residents employed, and food on their tables. The transient lodging dollars support visitor amenities, both a draw for tourism and locals alike.
That said, I like to approach tourism with a destination management perspective and focus on bringing people into this community with similar values — they love the outdoors, respect nature, care about eating locally sourced food, and love to find unique shops to explore.
It’s essential to have messaging of stewardship, the land’s history, and the code of the coast, which are ways to share our values with potential visitors.
Other ways to support the destination management perspective are to share Yachats as a walking community and encourage visitors to utilize the trail systems from their vacation rental or motel to eat and shop. Create incentive programs that encourage visitors to pitch in, help us maintain clean beaches and trails, and inspire the love and exploration of nature in youth that visit. One of our first projects along this line is to create youth naturalist kits for families to get at the Visitors Center that they can use as they spend their time in Yachats and on future explorations.
Q: You have a working, but outsider’s impression of Yachats. What physically downtown or in the area would you like to see improved, tweaked, or emphasized somewhere down the road?
A: Right off the bat, I think there are some creative ways to address parking, especially when there is an increase in visitors. As I get to work here, this is something I am excited to collaborate on with the city and community. I’m sure I will think of more ways to help improve or tweak the downtown area as time goes on.
Q: How do you go about looking for more chamber members? Can individuals join, or just businesses? Are you looking for board members? How can the chamber benefit the business community?
A: Working on building the chamber back up is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. I’d like to start by sitting down with the board of directors and creating a strategic plan for the process. In that strategic plan, I would address; fine-tuning chamber member benefits and business networking opportunities. From there, we can build a package to take with us as we meet businesses, individual community members, non-profits, and associations about the benefit of being a chamber member.
A chamber of commerce can benefit businesses and community organizations in many ways, as they can provide networking opportunities and access to information. As we work to grow and develop our chamber and how it can benefit the community, I see opportunities to partner with the Lincoln County Economic Alliance and the Small Business Development Center at Oregon Coast Community College to provide professional education seminars for our small businesses and entrepreneurs.
One great value of a chamber is that it is an information hub for people who plan to be here, would like to move here, start a business, or are already visiting. As a chamber member, you would be listed online and printed in the membership directories. These guides will ultimately be in the hands of thousands of people, which is an excellent form of advertising. There will also be opportunities for businesses to sponsor events to get their names in front of visitors.
I hope that as we grow our areas of work in membership, events, professional development, and information, we can build committees of people willing to help grow the chamber.
- You can email Yachats Chamber of Commerce executive director Bobbi Price at: director@Yachats.Org
I’m delighted to hear Bobbi’s perspective on tourism, destination management, messaging, and stewardship. The community is fortunate to have her direction and presence.
I’ve seen so many cool little towns ruined by over-promotion by these rah-rah chambers types. They are interested mainly in filling beds in the hotels. Quality, not quantity is what I want to see in this town.