“When I think about why I show up to work every day, it’s to leverage that visitor economy to enhance the quality of life for locals.” — Nate Wyeth 

What if your vacation could help make a community stronger? In Bend, Oregon, that’s exactly what’s happening.

As Bend experiences rapid growth, its destination management organization, Visit Bend, is helping to make sure that tourism supports rather than strains the community. Each year, visitor spending generates over $15 million in lodging tax revenue, and nearly two-thirds of that goes directly to the City of Bend. That means visitors help fund essential services like police, fire, road maintenance, and emergency response.

But it doesn’t stop there. Visit Bend reinvests nearly half of its own budget into the community through the Bend Sustainability Fund and the Cultural Tourism Fund. Together, these grant programs have invested over $5 million into projects that benefit both locals and visitors, from new hiking and biking trails to accessible river access and cultural events like Winter Pride Fest. One standout project even helped save a historic building and support walkability by relocating it to a new part of town.

As Visit Bend’s Nate Wyeth explains in this episode, it’s all about using tourism as a force for good. When you stay in Bend, your dollars directly support the community, and that helps preserve what makes it special for generations to come.

You’ll also learn:

• How Visit Bend is shortening the “say-do gap” to help people travel according to their sustainability values.
• How your Bend vacation dollars fund firefighting and other essential services.
• How Visit Bend’s cultural and sustainability funds are improving Bend’s quality of life along with experiences for visitors.
• How engaging residents and shifting community sentiment is key to Bend’s destination management approach.
• Why Visit Bend sees tourism as a powerful tool for long-term community wellbeing and global good.

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Show notes

Bend Cultural Tourism Fund – A grant program that strengthens Bend’s economy by supporting cultural events that attract visitors and enrich the community.

Bend Sustainability Fund – A project by Visit Bend that reinvests the short-term lodging tax revenue paid by visitors into sustainable experiences for the community. 

Oregon State University Sustainable Tourism Lab – A research hub that provides data and services to help tourism organizations balance visitor and community needs.

Visit Bend – The destination management and marketing organization for Bend, Oregon. 

Episode transcript

This transcript was generated using AI and has been lightly reviewed for accuracy.

Nate Wyeth: Our most recent visitor guide has several thank you letters to visitors written in it, and it’s a thank you for ensuring that our firefighters have the ability to continue to operate and serve our community, and thank you for tipping that barista and all of those things, because I think what that does is ultimately reinforces that mindset that travel can be a force for good, and we’re helping folks to show them that that’s possible.

David Archer: Welcome to Travel Beyond. I’m David Archer From Destination Think recording from Haida Gwaii, the territory of the Haida Nation off the north coast of British Columbia in Canada. On this show, we look at travel’s role in making a better world, and we highlight leading destinations and change makers. Our guests are taking local action that the world can learn from.

They’re helping to regenerate ecosystems, communities, and economies, and they’re often making positive change happen from the bottom up. Many of the voices we’ve highlighted on the show are part of the destination Think collective, A peer group of more than 20 ambitious forward-thinking destinations who are working toward a better future for travel and the planet.

And speaking of using travel as a force for good, do you ever wonder what happens to that money that you spend on vacation? And I’m talking specifically about what you spend in the hotel, because when you stay in a hotel, you might see a line item on your bill called a lodging tax, or maybe it’s called a bed tax or room tax, or a destination marketing fee, or something else.

Depending on where you are, these are charged as a percentage of the total room rate. And often those taxes are used to promote the destination, but in some places, they can be used for other important community projects too. And today we’re going to hear about how that’s happening in Bend, Oregon, which is a fast growing city in the Pacific Northwest where tourism is growing fast too.

Bend charges, its visitors, a transient room tax. Our guest today is Nate Wyeth. The senior Vice President of Strategy at Visit Bend, and he has a lot to say about how the dollars you spend on accommodation in Bend are being put to good use. The answers are pretty surprising and impressive. I think tourism revenue here is being used for all sorts of basic municipal services that keep the city running from firefighters to roadways.

And on top of that Visit Bend is putting some of the room tax into two community funds, supporting projects that are good for both locals and visitors. And it’s a list of projects that grows every year. We’re talking new seats in the local theater trail restoration and EV charging station BMX courses.

It goes on in Bend. Tourism is building a city that people want to live in. And Nate from Visit Bend is here to tell us how.

All right. I’d like to welcome all of our listeners and viewers to the show today, wherever in the world you may be. Uh, you might be listening to this on the Travel Beyond Podcast, produced by Destination Think, or maybe you’re seeing the video version at our digital event on World Tourism Day. I’m David Archer, Editorial Manager at Destination Think, and we’re here to talk about tourism in Bend, Oregon, and especially about some of the exciting ways that tourism is making.

Bend a better place to live, uh, in part through the work going on at Visit Bend, which brings me to my guest today. Uh, Nate, can you start by telling us your name, uh, where you work and your role, or what it is that you do? 

Nate Wyeth: Yeah. Hey David. Thanks for, uh, having me here today. So my name’s Nate Wyeth. I’m the senior VP of Strategy here at Visit Bend and, and my role at our organization is to really bring together all of the important pieces of work that we do that impacts our community.

So whether we’re talking about the marketing and brand stewardship work, which is attracting visitors, or how we reinvest those dollars through our grant programs and give back to our community, uh, I serve as that strategist who’s driving that vision forward in our day-to-day work. 

David Archer: Great. Yeah. And so, uh, we’ll, we’ll get into some of that, uh, that we were talking about just off air here, uh, about the changing role that, uh, Visit Bend is playing and, and many other destination management organizations.

First, let’s talk a little bit about Bend itself. I want to ask you like, hopefully a few easy questions, uh, just to get, get Bend in people’s minds. What’s one thing you always take friends to do when they visit Bend? 

Nate Wyeth: I mean, that is such a hard question. And then I’m somebody who has a really hard time playing favorites, but I think.

In general, when I think about what makes Ben so special, it’s our unparalleled access to the outdoors and outdoor recreation. So, uh, depending on what’s, you know, snow or rain falling from the sky, or there’s sunshine in the sky, I think that dictates a lot of my decisions. But, uh, we’re surrounded by federal lands and public lands, and that means we’ve got this incredible cascade mountain range to the west full of lakes and mountains and waterfalls and rivers and, uh, places to fish and trail run and hike and bike and camp.

And then we’ve got this incredible desert to the east, which is oftentimes snow free throughout the entire year. So it’s just a really significantly beautiful place and, um, really privileged to be able to live in a place so amazing. 

David Archer: Yeah, it’s, it sounds like a very diverse environment. Uh, you’re in the Pacific Northwest and Central Oregon.

What do you miss most about Bend when you’re away? 

Nate Wyeth: Oh man. I think it’s, it’s really the community. You know, Bend is this place when I, I’ve lived in Bend for almost 17 years now, and when we first moved here, I think the population was around 55,000 and it’s grown to about double that. But every time that I come back to Bend after being on vacation, and this could be whether I go to somewhere incredible like Iceland or uh, or go to Hawaii or something, I come back to Bend and I just, I see the mountain range.

On the horizon. Um, I see the river flowing through town. I see people walking on the trail and I just see people generally happy and, uh, just reminded of, of, again, that privilege that I have to be able to live in a place that, um, a lot of people choose as their place to vacation. And it’s, it’s really unique and special place.

David Archer: And you mentioned Bend’s been growing a lot recently, or, or has grown a lot. What do you think has drawn so many more people to live in Bend? And how big is Bend now? 

Nate Wyeth: Yeah, I mean the, the most recent population estimates are somewhere around 110,000, and that’s just within the city limits. If you look at sort of the larger statistical area, that’s our, the entire county, it’s Deschutes County that we’re in, and that, that’s closer to about a quarter million people.

And, um. It’s really like, you know, the, the cool thing I think about Bend is that the same reasons that people choose to visit here are the same reasons that people choose to live here. So Bend is in a, as is a very amenity rich place and it hasn’t always been that way. Yeah, we were a logging town and um, we had this foresight back far before my time to transition Bend from this logging town to this tourist destination, which has really helped to then attract a whole bunch of people who wanna come here and start businesses here. And, um, and now we’ve moved from this tourist town to this really amenity rich lifestyle town, which is supporting a lot of other really cool industries and attracting a very diverse workforce. And I think that’s a, a really cool evolution from a logging town to a tourist town to now this sort of lifestyle town.

David Archer: Yeah. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about that lifestyle. Like, can you describe like, the kind of person that, that’s attracted to this or, or some of the values the community might have as a result? 

Nate Wyeth: I mean, we’re, we’re doing a lot of, uh, interesting surveys and, and statistical work right now to really identify what, what that thing is that makes people wanna live here.

But I think one of the things that I find pretty common about folks who live in Bend is I, that they just like, they have this really unique sense of community when they come here. They wanna be part of something that’s bigger than themselves. They wanna give back, they wanna take care of this place that gives so much to them and, and they’re really passionate about that.

I think when you look at our workforce, you know, we’re attracting a lot of folks in the outdoor industry. We’re attracting a lot of folks in the healthcare industry because we’ve got a lot of retirees moving here. Um, but we’ve also got advanced manufacturing. That’s an industry that’s sort of up and coming and in uh, biotech is another one of those interesting places. And the cool thing about that is that Bend is a place that people get to live, not have to live. And I think because of that, we recognize, you know, that insane sense of privilege, which I think drives our, our need to wanna give back and to be more connected to this community, right?

Like, to paraphrase, Voltaire, that great sense of privilege comes from with heightened responsibility, and I think that’s really important. That folks recognize when they land here and, and it is really a big part of those community values that Bend stands for. 

David Archer: Yeah. That sense of responsibility and like yeah.

Living in a, a tourism destination myself, I, I get the, I also am in the fortunate position of being in a place that, uh, people want to live in and, and be, be a part of, at least temporarily. So how do you think that sense of responsibility, that, uh, Bend residents have, do you think that affects the travel experience itself?

Nate Wyeth: Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, like everything there, there are two sides to the coin. There are pros and cons and I think, um, it, that sense of responsibility creates a sense of pride. So folks are really excited and, and proud to live in a place that’s so beautiful, a place where community gathering and community ideas are really celebrated and fostered.

Uh, but I think that it comes at the risk of perpetuating this sort of us versus them narrative in this protective, um, almost entitled mindset that can oftentimes position Bend amongst other, you know, I think similar destinations in the West and and around the world really where visitors might not feel welcome because they’re seen as contributing to problems instead of contributing to solutions.

And, and so because of that, it’s, it’s a delicate balance that organizations like Visit, Bend, have to play. And within our community, you know, I think one of the things most statistic uh, that I just recently heard was that about 24% of households who now live in Bend, moved here in the last three years.

Right. And those people were probably visitors and they found something in Bend that made them wanna move here, uh, and bring their family here and all of those things. And so I think, you know, that that continuum or that pipeline is really important and. How folks see themselves as visitors in this community when they come here.

And if they do become residents, I think, can help to sort of pave the way for how they show up in the community once they do become residents. 

David Archer: Yeah, that’s fascinating. That’s a, that’s a huge increase. You said that was 24% of households over the past three years. Yeah. 

Nate Wyeth: Yeah. And that’s households, that’s not people, right?

That’s that’s a lot of, yeah. A lot of people. 

David Archer: What do you think draws people to visit Bend if sustainability is important to them? Are you finding that it’s a, a place that’s becoming known for that? What can they, what can they expect when they get there? 

Nate Wyeth: Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I, I spend a lot of, um, waking hours in the middle of the night thinking about this concept of this say, do gap.

And I’m sure it’s been discussed on this podcast before, but it’s this idea that we have all this data, and I’m sure a lot of folks do that. Say people wanna travel more sustainably and be more invent environmentally conscious. And make those choices when they’re traveling. But when it comes time to make that purchasing decision, they don’t actually align with their values often.

And, and one of the ways that we’re sort of shortening that gap here in Bend is by taking the dollars that they leave behind largely those tax dollars that they spend when they stay in overnight lodging. And we’re reinvesting that into some grant programs that are ensuring that Bend remains that special place for a long time to come.

And so while the visitors themselves aren’t directly saying, Hey, I want to take my money and leave it behind for something better, we’re helping them do that. And I think they’re seeing that because we’re using a lot of messaging and communication to speak to them and say, Hey. Thank you. You know, our, our most recent visitor guide, um, has several thank you letters to visitors written in it.

And, and it’s thank you, uh, for ensuring that our firefighters have the ability to continue to operate and serve our community. And thank you for tipping that barista and all of those things, because I think what that does is ultimately reinforces that mindset that travel can be a force for good. And we’re helping folks to show them that that’s possible.

David Archer: Yeah. Yeah. I want to just pause on one word that you said. You said that tourists were being thanked for making firefighting possible. Can you, can you expand upon that a little bit? 

Nate Wyeth: Yeah, so, you know, in, in the city of Bend, and I know a lot of destinations, um, at least in the US are like this and I’m sure in Canada and internationally too, visitors pay a lodging tax, a bed tax anytime they stay in a hotel and, and in Bend, uh, about two thirds of that tax revenue goes directly to the city, and the city has the authority to decide how that money is spent. And, and a lot of that money, nearly 85% of that tourism tax revenue that’s invested in the city gets reinvested back into police and fire. And so visitors are really playing their part in making sure that those core services that a city provides, that that level of service that residents have come to expect are maintained by visitors.

And I think that’s a really cool story. 

David Archer: That is a cool story. It sounds like the, you know, tourism, the, the lodging taxes or, or, um, you know, the, the funds that you collect are pretty vital to the basic infrastructure of the city, it sounds like. 

Nate Wyeth: Yeah, very much so. And that’s, you know, it’s almost $10 million a year that’s, that’s reinvested into our city.

So that’s a lot of money. And that’s not even, that doesn’t even count the, the money that Visit Bend reinvests in the community through our grant programs and strategic partnerships. 

David Archer: Yeah, let’s talk a bit more about the grant programs. You know, if I visit somewhere, I like to know my dollars are making a difference locally.

And you know, as tourism grows in many places, Bend included. Um, you know, it’s a reasonable question to ask as a resident how travel is making my hometown a better place too, right? Like it, it kind of, it goes both ways and everybody wants, everybody wants better places to live and to visit. So how do you start to think about the way tourism is giving back in Bend and maybe yeah, lead us into those grant programs you were talking about.

Nate Wyeth: I. Yeah, I mean, I think at, at a high level, right? And this even goes back to our relationship with the City of Bend, whom we have a contract with. And, and it’s our job to maximize those room tax collections so that the city has the, the most amount of money possible to reinvest in those core services beyond that, so that that third of that tax revenue that visit Bend, receives.

We do a lot of different things with that. And I would say a lot of things that make us unique compared to a lot of other destinations around the country and around the world. We spend nearly half of our revenue that we receive through those tax dollars to reinvest back into the community. And, and two primary ways that we do that are through a couple of grant programs.

Uh, first one being the Bend Cultural Tourism Fund, which takes um, a portion of that revenue and reinvested into those cultural events. So think things like, um, like a pride fest that has really now become this like the biggest lgbtqia plus sort of celebration, cultural celebration in the wintertime in the state of Oregon.

And it attracts people from all over the country who come to this and, and. To experience Winter Pride in, in Oregon. And then we have, uh, our Bend Sustainability Fund, which is a grant program that launched in 2021 that takes that room tax revenue, that Visit Bend receives, and reinvests it into what state law calls tourism related facilities.

But we take a, um, a sort, a sort of liberal definition or approach to what a tourism related facility is. And in a place like Bend where outdoor recreation is so important, that’s things like mountain biking and hiking trails. That’s things like, um, like a new bike park, that’s things like accessible river put in points for folks who experience disabilities.

And what’s really cool about that is that those not only create new facilities that enhance Bend’s appeal as a visitor destination. But more importantly, it enhances that quality of life for locals because now folks who didn’t have an opportunity to get a wilderness hiking permit because they sold out can go hike, uh, Mount Bachelor, which is a similarly exceptional summit experience.

And be on a trail that visitors help pay for, and I think that’s just a really cool way of how we’re telling that story of how visitors are giving back more than just through the tax dollars that they leave behind. 

David Archer: Yeah, that’s incredible. Like I was looking at the list of projects and there’s like, you know, theater seating and ev charging stations and, and all kinds of things listed.

Can you gimme a sense of the, the scope or the scale of the project since 2021 in terms of dollars or projects or. However you’d like to measure it. 

Nate Wyeth: Yeah, I mean, uh, you know, overall between our two grant programs, we’re, we’re well over a hundred different projects. I think we’re close to 130, um, between the cultural tourism fund and the sustainability fund, over $5 million invested back into our community.

Again, these are visitor tax dollars. These are not local tax dollars, so it’s, it’s visitors making our community better for everybody. And, and then when you break it down per grant program, the Bend Sustainability Fund, which was only launched a few years ago, has already invested, uh, just about $3.38 million back into our community, and now more than two dozen projects that are all within the central Oregon region.

Um. Multi-seasonal, urban facing, wild facing, protecting wildlife, protecting our um, environment, enhancing that quality of life for locals and, and really aligning with council goals. Um, I think, you know, another cool project that we recently invested in, uh, back to the conversation about Bend being a tourism town or a logging town a long, long time ago, is that we’ve got all these old historic buildings, and one of them had been converted into this sort of like, uh, motorcycle bar slash coffee house slash food truck place. And it was this really unique community meeting space. And a developer, you know, Bend sorely needs housing. And so a developer had come in and had proposed this new multi-story, uh, apartment complex, but it meant that that that historic building, which housed this really special business, had to move or, or go away and Visit Bend was able to come in with a Bend Sustainability Fund and provide the funds to have that building actually lifted up, moved across town, relocated into this new core area of town where Bend City Council has identified as an area to infill to create this truly walkable, livable community.

And this building now has, uh, just reopened last month and there’s a new bar and it’s new food trucks and it’s this new area of town which is gonna see incredible growth and redevelopment in the next decade. And it’s, and it’s all because the Bend Sustainability Fund and, and the tourism dollars that help make it possible served as a catalyst in launching point for this larger project that, you know, is, is part of Bend’s vision for the future.

David Archer: Wow. Yeah. So you, the, the project has essentially rescued a heritage building and created those opportunities. That’s amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Is this inspiring people locally? I mean, what’s the, what’s the feeling on the ground or with the people that you work with? 

Nate Wyeth: Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely, you know, when I think about why I show up to work every day, it’s to leverage that visitor economy to enhance the quality of life for locals.

So seeing projects like this happen, especially when they align with overall community intent, is something that really inspires me. On a daily basis. I think when you talk to locals, we have a lot of work to do because historically an organization like Visit Bend hasn’t been good at communicating with our own community, right?

We speak to visitors, right? And so the very nature of the work that we do and how we communicate and who we communicate to requires us to take a very different approach, and that means. You know, showing up in different ways in our community and telling those stories. And at the same time, we’re working with Oregon State University Sustainable Tourism Lab to ask this question about does the cost of tourism outweigh the benefits?

And when we started doing this work about four years ago, folks were pretty, pretty split, but more in the negative camp than the positive camp. And, and what we see is that folks are trending more in the positive direction in some of the initial data that we even have earlier in the earlier in. Year 2025 that we’re in now is we’re seeing folks really recognizing that value to our community and how those tourism dollars are making their lives better, and, and that’s really cool to see that.

That shift in that resident sentiment. But we know we’ve got a long ways to go to continue to communicate that because ultimately I think if we can, if, if locals understand the value that tourism provides to our community as one small piece of a larger economic and, and sort of like just healthy picture, then Bend becomes a more welcoming community, Bend becomes more desirable as a place to visit. Then ultimately, maybe a place to move to, which drives the overall tax base, which increases visitation, which increases those tax dollars so that we can reinvest them back into our community. And that cycle continues. 

David Archer: It’s the virtuous cycle everybody needs.

Yeah. Yes. What do you hope visitors can do? Or is there anything else that visitors can do to help this positive vision move along? Aside from just, you know, having a good time in Bend and, and staying in a hotel and that sort of thing? 

Nate Wyeth: Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, this is, this is like more of a philosophical question, um, for me.

And I think it’s also something that, you know, travel is a, it’s a worldwide thing. It’s a global phenomenon, right? And it’s also think to that extent and to that end, it’s, it’s a, it’s a global powerhouse and something that wind leverage can. Just provide for a whole ton of good, and I think there’s a lot of work that destination organizations need to do and that other organizations and businesses and honestly, politicians need to do to sort of redefine how and why we travel.

I think, um, you know, folks, folks travel because they wanna seek new experiences because they wanna seek fulfillment because they wanna see the splendors of the world and all of those things. But I think. We can all do so in a way that embodies the very values that our communities hold dear. And if we can all get on the same page about that, then I think we have a real opportunity in front of us to really leverage that power of tourism as a force for good.

But. You know, it goes back to sort of that say, do gap. It goes back to how we inspire our visitors. I think we can do a lot through our messaging and through our advertising even, um, how we define our destinations, all of those things. But I think it requires true collaboration to, to make a movement that’s significant enough to have a true impact.

David Archer: I think that’s a great note to leave this conversation on. Uh, I want to thank you so much, Nate, for being a guest with us today. 

Nate Wyeth: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I’m, I’m really excited and honored to be part of this conversation and, um, really am really excited for where this industry is heading and, and the positive impact that we can have on our planet.

David Archer: This has been Travel Beyond Presented by Destination Think. And that was Nate Wyeth from Visit Bend. For more resources and show notes, visit our website at destinationthink.com. This episode was hosted, produced, and has theme music composed by me, David Archer, Sarah Raymond de Booy, my co-producer Lindsay Payne, Jamie Sterling, and Cory Price provided production support.

If you like what you hear, please give us a five star rating on whichever app you’re using. It helps more people find us, and thank you for listening. We’ll be back with more next week.