Tourism in the Time of COVID with Kevney Dugan, CEO Visit Bend

For this week’s “Bend Don’t Break” podcast, we talk with Kevney Dugan, CEO of Visit Bend, the destination marketing organization for the City. Dugan worked in the fly fishing industry before coming on as the group sales manager for the agency 10 years ago. He was then promoted to President, taking over for Doug LaPlaca. Dugan discusses the challenging position Visit Bend is in right now: It is mandated through a City contract to promote tourism, and the state requires that it spends most of its marketing dollars on campaigns to lure overnight guests to Bend. Simultaneously, the Bend City Council has passed multiple “strong advisories” against recreational travel to the region to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Meanwhile, tourism businesses, which employ around 17% of the workforce in Bend, are struggling to stay afloat and recoup their devastating losses over the last four months. In short, Dugan has many different interest groups to answer to at the same time. Send us Fan MailSupport the show