The marketing job opening on the Cumbres & Toltec harkens back to the days of the general passenger agent, which was the railroad's marketing man of yesteryear.
Shadrack (sp?) K Hooper was the marketing man for the D&RGW who coined the phrase ``Around the Circle'' Tours. The passenger agents planned their strategies with the precision of a military campaign, hence their military nicknames.
The person who will get this job will have to do the same but with more challenges than Hooper faced.
The major had to deal with getting passengers on his trains rather than the Colorado Midland or the Coloraado & Southern. Today the marketing person has to get people to use another form of transportation to get to the trains.
I still have my (volunteer) job as marketing person for the Pueblo Railway Museum. It consists of getting the radio stations to run free advertising and the newspaper to run an article. Our target market are Puebloans who will probably never travel to Golden or Canon City or Antonito because of money. They will show up faithfully for our train rides at $3 per head for the caboose and $10 for the engine.
Before I moved to Broomfield I got a chance to meet the Royal Gorge Route's MaryLynn Hegdahl. She was working on getting her line on the major tour bus routes.
Major Tour bus operator's always ask ``What else do you have in the area?'' She was trying to cultivate the Pueblo actractions.
The C&TS person will have to do the same with the Chama-Antonito area, giving tour operators a good picture of what could be had.
Then the marketing person would have to coordinate all the stops from motels to restaurants to fuel, not only in the vicinity of the railroad but also in areas from Alamosa to Pagosa Springs to Taos. This would also mean working with other marketing agents from these communities, making sure they don't forget to plug the railroad.
In addition to the bus traffic, drive-in tourists must continue to lured. This could bring more immediate results than the bus work.
In the end we are talking passenger load increases in the hundreds per day if this person is to be successful.
BTW the Pueblo Railway Museum will be operating on April 7, 1-6 p.m. However, a scheduling conflict will keep me in the Denver area. No problem. I will be in Golden on the same day for the steamup.
