Discovery Pass logo (Courtesy Buena Vista Chamber of Commerce)
The Discovery Pass winter savings edition was released Friday, Nov. 1, with a variety of new savings offers. Created by Angel and Nik Rowell, when they moved to Salida last winter, the pass promotes Chaffee County local businesses.
According to the Rowells, the Discovery Pass winter savings edition can save pass holders up to $600 at participating local eateries, breweries, coffee shops, retail and wellness experiences throughout Salida and Buena Vista.
In creating the Discovery Pass, The Rowells say their primary focus became to support local businesses by allowing a space for local businesses to provide purchase incentives. Their Discovery Pass program then provides the marketing for the pass.
In an interview with Angel Rowell to talk about the winter launch, she shared the differences between the summer and winter versions of their Discovery Pass. The summer pass, which launched at the end of May, just concluded as the winter pass was launched.
“This time around, we are focusing heavier on food offers because that was really popular this last time,” said Rowell. “We started partnering with more restaurants and focusing more on food offers.”
Rowell continued, “Some restaurants are repeats, some are new. Some things like rafting have fallen off [for the winter pass], but things like Monarch Snowmobile tours comes on, which is sweet. Some new businesses, such as Chill Salida Ice Cream, are on this pass as well.”
Rowell explained that they want returning businesses to try out, offering different savings in the pass, saying that one offer for one person may not be an offer for another. With a new pass to be released every six months, this provides businesses the chance to see new business from pass holders by offering a different incentive. Café Dawn, for example, had offered savings on their travel mugs in the summer pass, now, in the winter pass, Café Dawn is offering $2 off a bag of coffee.
Rowell shared the couple’s process in maintaining the Discovery Pass and what they had learned from their first launch in May.
“We learned a ton from that initial launch. Things such as how to market it, what people are drawn towards as far as offers go, what is really working and what is not. We took that information and hit the ground running.”
Rowell continued, “On the site, one of the things people were asking for was getting people to see what is on the pass in advance so that people can see the value.”
“Ideally, our locals are who we want to reach out to,” said Rowell. “It’s a $25 cost, which they get $600 in value.”
The Winter Discovery Pass is valid from November until April 30, 2020, providing pass holders, both local and visitors, plenty of time to utilize the deals and offers through the holidays leading up to next spring.
Businesses interested in participating in Discovery Pass can email Angel at info@discoverypass.co. Those interested in purchasing a Discovery Pass can navigate to its website.
NOTE: discoverypass.co is not a typo. The domain is .co (as in Colorado), not .com.
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