Park City, Utah is a destination town famous for its breathtaking outdoor offerings. But for the Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau, the challenge wasn’t attracting visitors during peak ski season, it was sustaining momentum when the snow melts.

Off-season travel has always been a hurdle for mountain towns. As tourism dips, so do sales for the small businesses that form the fabric of the town. Park City needed a better way to incentivize year-round visits, amplify local business exposure, and ensure that spending stayed in the community.

Enter the MountainKind Card, a digital Community Card powered by Yiftee that becomes the tourist's passport around town.

Unlike traditional gift cards, the MountainKind Card works exclusively at 95 participating local businesses from boutiques and galleries to spas and cafés. Park City weaves the MountainKind Card into the kinds of experiences that today’s travelers are looking for:

• Off-Season Booking Incentives: The MountainKind Card is bundled with hotel stays and travel packages to drive bookings during slower months, creating urgency and added value for shoulder-season visits. Park City offers $100 cards for three-night stays and $200 for five-night stays during the slower seasons.
  
  
• Integrated with Experience Marketing: Rather than limiting the card to in-town purchases, the Chamber collaborated with experience-based vendors like ski rentals, art classes, and guided tours to broaden the appeal and showcase the region’s lifestyle.
  
  
• Tourism Media Kits and Event Swag: The MountainKind Card became part of Park City’s toolkit for influencer campaigns and media outreach. When journalists and travel bloggers received a MountainKind Card as part of a press trip, they were prompted to explore, experience, and promote.
  
  
• Support for Voluntourism and Group Travel: The Chamber extended the card to groups visiting for community service projects or corporate retreats, reinforcing the “live like a local” ethos and encouraging visitors to discover shops and services beyond Main Street.

Park City’s group travel team regularly works with large companies to coordinate offsites, trainings, and retreats, especially in slower months. The Chamber now promotes the MountainKind Card as part of this strategy, encouraging visiting organizations to provide cards to employees as a flexible, local-focused incentive.

By giving out cards instead of pre-planned activities, companies let their teams explore on their own while ensuring every dollar contributes to Park City’s business community.

“It's a great way to not only incentivize travel, but to really get people deeper into our community and really connect with that local business community and the local residents,” said Scott House, Senior Director of Partner Services in Park City.

The MountainKind Card is mobile-wallet friendly, and instantly delivered by email or text. Plus no single-use plastic, keeping the MountainKind Card true to its name.

“When we think about sustainable tourism, it goes beyond just waste reduction and respect for our natural environment,” said House. “It's how we integrate our guests into our community, better share our culture, better distribute those economic benefits across a broader base of businesses in our community. The MountainKind Card is not only a marketing tool, but an economic development tool that we can use to do that.”

One of the most powerful features of the MountainKind Card is its closed-loop infrastructure. Because funds can only be redeemed at approved Park City merchants, every dollar invested by the city stays within the local economy.

And the rollout was effortless. Getting businesses on board takes just one step: a single 10-cent swipe. No hardware. No apps. No technical barriers. Just a quick and easy way to let visitors tap into local experiences.

“‘Mountainkind’ will become a phrase associated with visitor behavior, so those who visit Park City will do so with a mindset of cooperation and destination preservation,” said Dan Howard, the Chamber/Bureau vice president of communications.

In just the first three months, the MountainKind Card generated $52,000 in local community card sales. That money was spent at neighborhood shops, family-run eateries, outfitters, and art studios. Even better: the Chamber’s partnership with local experience agency Ripe delivered a 300% return on investment. The promo gets people to Park City. The MountainKind Card keeps them shopping local.

“We have seen overwhelming positive support for it,” said House. “These are businesses that are paying their membership dues by 3 to 5x just from cards they've redeemed so far. Their chamber membership for the next five years is essentially free because they've redeemed enough MountainKind Card revenue streams that they wouldn't have previously had.”

Park City’s use of the MountainKind Card has redefined what a tourism incentive can be. It’s not a one-time handout. It’s an ecosystem driver. A loyalty builder. A modern, mobile-enabled way to keep the magic of the mountains alive long after the trip ends.

For cities and towns that rely on tourism, it’s a blueprint for what comes next.

Want to attract more visitors during slow seasons? Turn press trips and group travel into meaningful engagement? Support small business without heavy infrastructure?

Schedule a demo with our team at Yiftee to explore how to bring sustainable tourism to your town.

Because when visitors support local, they sustain what makes a place worth visiting.