We sat down with Courtney Braun, co-owner of Wanderlust Tours, to talk about the impact guided experiences can have on visitors, local communities and the environment of Central Oregon—and the benefits of fostering connection and curiosity for both travelers and residents.
Can you tell us about your mission at Wanderlust Tours?
The mission of Wanderlust hasn’t changed in 31 years. We’ve added new experiences, of course, but it all funnels back to the fact that connection is the goal. Wanderlust wants to connect people to the cultural and natural history of Oregon so they appreciate and want to protect it. We believe we can do that through adventure, inspiration and education. If someone feels connected to a place, they will want to protect it and that’s what we want—to get people to care about each other and the natural world.
We also love to support our local community. We’re proud to partner with local businesses and nonprofit organizations that share our values. We showcase local offerings as part of our tours by working with local chefs or shops. We offer discounts to local schools or other groups such as the local library and summer programs for kids. We also work with three nonprofit organizations each season—we host volunteer events with them and offer streamlined ways to donate directly.
What’s your favorite part of the job? What do you find most rewarding?
My favorite part of the job is making connections, both human and environmental. I love connecting with my guests and watching other people make connections with friends, family, neighbors, colleagues and strangers from all over the world. Equally exciting is watching people connect with nature. A wonderful challenge of the job, for me, is discovering what people’s preferred connections might be. People seek and find connection with nature in different ways and, as a guide, your job is to work with each person to determine what inspires them, what they care about and how they want to connect. It’s the most rewarding thing to get an email from a guest after a trip asking follow-up questions like how to buy a canoe or where to rent snowshoes—to know that I helped introduce them to a way to connect with the outdoors that they want to do again and again.
Do you offer year-round employment?
Yes, we are proud to offer year-round employment. When I first started at Wanderlust, I was a summer guide and was thrilled when I was offered year-round work because that doesn’t always exist in this business. Some guides have to piece together work to be able to do what they love. It’s important to us that we can provide our guides with employment they can depend on.
Do you feel Wanderlust has a positive impact on the local community and environment?
Absolutely. We live here, too. We love Central Oregon. We create programming for both visitors and residents. Most of the people signing up for our daily tours are visitors, but we also have special events that focus on the local community and some that are volunteer-centered. At our Forage & Food event, for example, local chefs led a hike, we foraged along the way and then the chef helped create an incredible outdoor meal. It’s fun and meaningful to develop programming for locals and to help foster community connections while providing guidance for visitors and deepening knowledge of the area and our other local offerings.
Do your guided tours help reduce any real and/or perceived tensions or pressures tourism may cause in your community?
Yes. The most obvious pressure reducer is parking, which is an issue at popular trailheads and lakes. So, instead of arriving in 10 individual cars, we come together as a group in one van. And then there’s the educational component of having a guide talk about outdoor etiquette and how to take care of a place—and, most importantly, why doing so matters. If visitors understand how to recreate responsibly and why it’s important, they’ll feel more connected to the place, care more about it and hopefully want to protect it.
What does responsible tourism/recreation look like in action?
The actions in responsible recreation can be big or small—and both are important. Things like picking up trash on the trail or packing out after your dog can make a big difference. We stress the importance of doing these things by talking about high-desert ecosystems and ways to interact with the land that will benefit it—that even organic litter is damaging to the land here. Then there are the bigger things like teaching about habitats and endangered species and how we can ensure public access while protecting these things. It’s important that Wanderlust as a company and our guides individually are living that ethos. A good example is the bike commuter incentive we started offering this year in which guides are rewarded for coming to work by bicycle.
How do your experiences align with regional community values?
Our community is conservation-minded, and we align fully with that at Wanderlust Tours. We believe people need to understand and care for the land to want to protect it. We also know there are a million ways to be outdoorsy. You don’t have to go on epic adventures or push yourself technically to be considered outdoorsy. Maybe you just want to have a picnic at the lake. That’s being outdoorsy, too. We want to expand our visitor base to include everyone and every level of interest. There are many facets to being welcoming and inclusive. It’s also about making sure our guide staff is representative of our visitors and that visitors see people who look like them or share their lived experiences. The more diverse our staff is, the more welcome we can make visitors feel. We want to create accessibility for all.
How do you and how does Wanderlust interact with Travel Oregon and your local DMO? What resources or opportunities have you tapped into?
Visit Central Oregon, Visit Bend and Travel Oregon have been crucial in helping us get innovative ideas off the ground and running. I’m an idea person but getting those ideas into action can be challenging. The networking opportunities and connections made through our local DMOs and Travel Oregon have been essential. It has been helpful to be part of Travel Oregon’s Why Guides program—there are so many great resources provided, such as free CPR courses and workshops that would have been costly to fund as a small business. The educational opportunities are also valuable. When the Oregon Outback was designated, Travel Oregon provided educational seminars and brainstorming sessions to talk about how businesses like mine could leverage the designation and who we might want to partner with. Why Guides hosted a recent seminar on the Black history of Oregon and offered the opportunity to host a staff training with the speaker. Visit Central Oregon and Visit Bend are also leaders in thinking through visitor and resident impact and are doing an amazing job of keeping a focus on community. The grant programs they offer are incredible and have been so helpful in allowing us to expand accessible experiences.
Speaking of accessibility, is there anything you’re excited about in this space?
I want anyone who comes to Central Oregon to be able to see whatever trail, waterfall or vista they want to see, no matter what mobility or other challenges they may have. That’s why we’re partnering with AdvenChair—a rugged, push-pull, off-road wheelchair—to offer a series of accessible guided adventures we’re calling AdvenTours. These chairs can go anywhere—they have ropes and pulleys and adjustable everything and can handle any trail, no matter the rocks and boulders. I’m super excited to help connect wheelchair users or people with mobility challenges to rugged outdoor spaces that have been inaccessible to them until now. A grant from the Future Fund at Visit Central Oregon made the purchase of the chairs possible. It would have been cost-prohibitive for a small business like ours otherwise. But now we can empower every member of our community in their quest for adventure.
What are the biggest risks/challenges to your business?
Being able to financially support staff in an area that’s expensive to live in is a challenge—finding the balance between making the tours affordable for a wide range of people while paying our staff enough that they can afford to live where they work. And then there are the environmental challenges. We typically start snowshoe tours in mid-November, for example, but last November we didn’t get snow until mid-December. That’s a month of missed revenue and missed opportunities to inspire guests and to provide for our staff. Likewise, during fire season, our challenge is that some visitors have become reluctant to book tours in August and are waiting to book at the last minute. This makes it challenging to schedule staff. When you rely on the natural world as we do, the health of the ecosystem is essential. Fire. Smoke. No snowpack. All of these impacts trickle down to affect the tourism business and the economy as a whole in Central Oregon, while also affecting everything from water quality to air quality.
Have you had to adjust your policies or business due to fire and smoke?
Yes. We want people to feel comfortable booking tours during fire season. We monitor the Air Quality Index (AQI) and are fortunate that we can pivot experiences if necessary. AQI can vary wildly in Central Oregon—it may be smoky in Bend but clear to the west or south. If the AQI is high in the area where the original experience was booked, we will offer an alternate experience if possible. If the visitor is not comfortable with the AQI but Wanderlust hasn’t deemed it unhealthy, we will issue a trip credit. If Wanderlust cancels a tour due to AQI, we will fully refund the tour.
What are the benefits to residents when visitors travel with a guide?
We get to spend the better part of a day with our guests, many of whom are visitors, and in addition to helping educate them about natural and cultural history and proper outdoor etiquette, we also act as local concierges. We recommend local businesses to visit—places to eat, shop or explore. We act as trusted influencers and help spread local economic impact for other small businesses.
Can you describe a specific moment when you felt most rewarded seeing your work expand access and appreciation for visitors and residents alike?
Last year, a teacher at a middle school reached out wanting to take their Spanish-speaking students on a paddle tour. We worked with them on a budget and found a Spanish-speaking guide so they could understand and connect with the interpretive information for geology, ecology and history in their first language. None of the kids had been up to Cascade Lakes before. They’ve lived here for years but didn’t even know such special places existed. I was so happy to help connect them to it. Perhaps they’ll take their parents for a picnic or share it with others in their family. It was a huge learning process for us—we had to get waivers translated and the sign-up process was different—but we figured it out and then we had another Spanish-speaking school group call and we got to offer the tour again. Central Oregon is more diverse than we realize because we tend to see the same people in the same places—those who already have access.
What would your vision be for tourism growth that’s built upon authentically showcasing Oregon?
Oregon as a state is making huge strides toward accessibility, inclusion and diversity, and I feel proud that we’re making those strides. There is still work to do, of course, but I would love to get to a point where people know they can come to Central Oregon and be welcomed no matter who they are. And that we have something for everyone—that visitors can come here for whatever they want to do. I want people to want to come back and to feel connected—to want to come and contribute their experience or their knowledge and skills here. If we can make Oregon and Central Oregon a welcoming, accessible and inclusive space, we will benefit from a diversity of people learning from one another. It’s important for residents to have a desire to learn about visitors and to embrace people who are coming. To be curious. And it’s important for visitors to travel responsibly and be curious about the local culture and community. I truly believe that education and open-mindedness are crucial to making Oregon a destination where people want to visit AND live. It all comes back to connections.