Kristen Cianci
Email: tourism@hood-gorge.com
Title: Destination Stewardship Specialist
Organization: Mt. Hood and Columbia River Gorge Regional Tourism Alliance
Community: Mt. Hood and Columbia River Gorge
Population: 1,265,000 (27,000 in Wasco, 415,000 in Clackamas, 800,000 in Multnomah, and 23,000 in Hood River)
Counties Served: Clackamas, Hood River, Multnomah, and Wasco counties
Meet Kristen Cianci (she/her):
Kristen is now serving in her 2nd year in RARE. She grew up on the East Coast in Connecticut and lived there for 22 years until she moved to Arizona for graduate school. She always wanted to move away and live all over the country, experiencing different areas and landscapes because the world has so much to offer. Kristen studied criminal justice and psychology in undergraduate, and made the switch to community resources for her masters when she became very involved in obstacle course races and outdoor recreation.
Kristen is most excited to put her studies into practice and become a driving force supporting outdoor recreation in this beautiful area. Having an impact on the areas and activities she enjoys herself will be an amazing experience.
Community and Organization:
Kristen is serving the large region of the Mt Hood and Columbia River Gorge area, and living in The Dalles. This area includes The Dalles, Mosier, Hood River, Estacada, Sandy, Cascade Locks, Dufur, Troutdale, and more. Kristen’s host organization is technically based in Clackamas County, but her supervisor works from home so Kristen has been stationed at The Dalles Chamber of Commerce on days she is not traveling around the region.
Projects:
Kristen has four main project areas that will hopefully each achieve multiple outcomes. Accessibility of trails and popular tourism destinations is probably the biggest project she is working on. Kristen is assisting CGTA, who is covering the Washington side, on assessing, reporting, and posting all of the accessibility metrics of each trail and business in the gorge. The main focus is on providing very informed and thorough information on what each of these locations looks like in terms of accessibility needs so that visitors can make decisions based on their own needs. The current goal is not to make any drastic changes to update businesses or trails to be more accessible, but to meet them where they are right now so that tourists have all the information they need prior to arrival.
Kristen is also working on agritourism and the local food trails, which is the other large tourist draw for the area alongside outdoor recreation. She is planning the first agritourism summit for the gorge in the winter in conjunction with CGTA, so there is a lot of planning needed so that the end result is a group of supported agriculture businesses and a flow of ideas to promote and support visitation.
The destination stewardship piece of Kristen’s role relies on her support of Trail ambassadors and helping to promote the program and bring more volunteers in so that hikers feel safer on trails. This role also includes providing any general support to the DMOs and destinations in whatever way she can.
The last piece Kristen is working on is creating a climate action plan for the region related to tourism, as well as car-free initiatives to help relieve car traffic at popular destinations and help the environment through public transportation. Kristen is researching, and hopefully putting into motion the installation of more EV charging stations at tourism locations.