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Colorado Tourism Office Announces Initial Findings from Statewide Strategic Plan Public Input Sessions and Begins a Second Round Listening Tour

Colorado Tourism Office Announces Initial Findings from Statewide Strategic Plan Public Input Sessions and Begins a Second Round Listening Tour

Colorado Tourism Office Seeking Public Input on Strategic Plan to Maximize State’s Tourism Potential

DENVER, Colo. (October 7, 2016) ─ The Colorado Tourism Office’s shift to a national marketing campaign in recent years has altered the dynamics of Colorado travel, clear evidence there is power in marketing dollars to transform traveler behavior.
 
Even as overall traveler spending grew 34.2 percent, the share of traveler spending from nearby western states dropped from 71 percent in 2011 to 60 percent in 2015 as the CTO expanded its media footprint from spot markets to a national audience.  The most dramatic increases were among travelers from the Pacific states, where contribution to Colorado’s traveler spending grew from 9 percent in 2011 to 14 percent in 2015, and from the Northeast, which increased from 5 percent to 8 percent during the same period.
 
“This is some of the best and most positive evidence we’ve seen that increased media budgets and a concerted strategy can yield the desired results,” said Colorado Tourism Office Director Cathy Ritter. “These shifts in travel behavior not only infused new dollars into Colorado’s business economy, but generated significant increases in state and local tax revenues.”
 
The findings were included as part of a preliminary report from an eight-month initiative to develop the Colorado Tourism Roadmap, a statewide strategic plan for the state’s tourism industry. These findings and more are to be shared publicly Oct. 11 through 14 and on Nov. 3 in a second round of nine listening sessions scheduled in cities, mountain towns and the plains aimed at gaining further insight for the plan from tourism stakeholders.
 
The CTO kicked off the planning process in June with an initial round of eight listening sessions. Those findings, along with additional research, have been compiled into a State of the Industry Report by a consortium of planners led by Nichols Tourism Group of Bellingham, WA.
 
Other major findings to date include:
  • There is strong potential for Colorado and its destinations to become "destination architects," focusing on the creation of new "destination drivers" to attract targeted, high-value travel segments.
  • Direct travel spending growth over the past five years has been most significant in the Denver Metro and mountain resort regions even though many of the state’s top attractions are not located in these areas. A component of the strategic plan will be to focus on growth strategies in regions of the state that would benefit from additional traveler activity.
  • While CTO has always focused on marketing outside of the state, creating low-cost initiatives to encourage Coloradans to explore their own state could benefit less-traveled areas of the state while offsetting other states’ efforts to lure Colorado travelers.
  • While the biggest contributors to Colorado’s travel economy have been California, Texas, Florida, Illinois and New York, those traveler numbers are due primarily to the large populations of these states. The states whose residents are most likely to visit Colorado are Wyoming, Nebraska and New Mexico.
In its second round of listening sessions, the CTO’s strategic planning team will seek public input into these major findings to lay the ground work for developing the full strategic plan, which is set for a vote before the Colorado Tourism Board in January 2017.
 
The full schedule for the second round of input sessions includes:
  • 9 to 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 11 at Drake Centre in Fort Collins
  • 2 to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 11 at the MSU Denver Hospitality Center in Denver
  • 9 to 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 12 at Hub City Senior Center in Limon
  • 2 to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 12 at Rawlings Library in Pueblo
  • 9 to 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 13 at the Salida SteamPlant in Salida
  • 2 to 3:30p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 13 at the Grand View Room in Vail
  • 8:30 to 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 14 at City Hall Auditorium in Grand Junction
  • 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 14 at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites in Durango
  • 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 3 at the Morgan County Fairgrounds in Brush
In 2015 Colorado set all-time records welcoming 77.7 million visitors to the state who spent $19.1 billion and generated $1.13 billion in tax revenue.
 
For the most up-to-date information about the public input sessions, please visit http://industry.colorado.com.
 
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Media Contacts: Carly Holbrook, [email protected], 720-289-9366
              Kirstin Graber, [email protected], 303-892-3871