Vacationers spent extra money in Colorado in 2024, however journey specialists say 2025 is off to a shaky begin

Last yr was a very good yr for tourism in Colorado: guests had been spending extra money, visiting extra locations and serving to create jobs for native economies. The identical can’t be stated in regards to the 2025 tourism season to this point.

Tourism contributed $28.5 billion to Colorado’s economy in 2024, over $100,000 greater than in 2023, because of a 2.3% enhance in visitation, in accordance with an annual report commissioned by the Colorado Tourism Office and carried out by Longwoods International and Dean Runyan Associates.

Roughly 95.4 million individuals visited the state in 2024 in comparison with the 93.3 million guests recorded in 2023, which Longwoods International Travel USA credit partially to a rise in day vacationers. State and native tax income elevated by 1.3% to a mixed $1.9 billion in 2024, with roughly 40.5% of the tax income generated by travel-related spending coming from visitor-paid native gross sales taxes.

---

---

Increased visitation and traveler spending within the state additionally supported 188,510 jobs throughout the state, together with over 4,000 new jobs generated from direct journey.

Early 2025 information, nevertheless, counsel that rising competitors and uncertainty associated to federal coverage adjustments are placing strain on Colorado’s thriving tourism trade.

---

---

Hotel occupancy has declined by 2% and resort revenues have decreased by 2.7% by means of June 2025, in accordance with the report. Short-term rental occupancy declined by roughly 10% throughout the first quarter of 2025.

International tourism to Colorado also took a big hit during the first half of 2025. A good portion of Canadian vacationers are reconsidering journey to the United States over tariffs and political statements, in accordance with a Canadian journey sentiment research from April 2025.

Of the Canadian survey respondents who indicated they might be altering their journey plans to the United States throughout the subsequent 12 months, 79% cited tariffs and 64% cited political statements by U.S. leaders as causes for reconsidering their journey. The trade fee between the U.S. and Canadian greenback additionally stays a key issue, with 47% of respondents taking it into consideration for his or her trip plans.

International vacationers make up almost 8-10% of Colorado’s tourism economic system, in accordance with Colorado Tourism Office Director Tim Wolfe. With different components of the nation battling worldwide visitation numbers, Wolfe stated states might quickly change into extra aggressive with the {dollars} of home vacationers.

“As those areas struggle a little bit with the international visitation, they’re going to be going after our domestic travel much more aggressively to try to fill that void that we may not be seeing, but they’re definitely seeing some drops in the international travel,” Wolfe stated throughout a July 30 webinar dialogue of the survey outcomes.

The seize fee of home in a single day guests has additionally been declining within the final 4 years, leaping from 2.3% of whole in a single day visitation in comparison with the remainder of the nation in 2019 to 1.8% in 2024.

“We actually expect that trend to continue, especially given what’s going on internationally, as well as the fixed budgets that the state has,” Wolfe stated.

On the plus aspect, advertising and marketing from the Colorado Tourism Office has confirmed efficient for attracting extra guests to Colorado. Leading journey and market analysis firm SMARI discovered that Colorado’s 2024 winter advertising and marketing marketing campaign earned the best return on funding ever for a winter marketing campaign when in comparison with all locations they consider throughout the United States. 

In addition, when evaluating frequented actions for vacationers to Colorado, the state notably outpaces the U.S. norm for customer participation in out of doors actions like mountain climbing, backpacking and visiting nationwide parks. With adjustments to the price range for nationwide park companies and staffing reductions underneath the Trump administration, nevertheless, impacts to Colorado’s steady park visitation numbers are but to be seen.

Mountain areas see combined income outcomes from 2024 tourism

States are competing more durable for tourism {dollars}, and Colorado isn’t standing out as a lot as another states.

Travel-related spending elevated 4.2% nationally in 2024, whereas Colorado noticed a smaller 0.3% enhance from $28.4 billion in 2023 to $28.5 billion in 2024. This is notably decrease than the state’s 4.4% annual fee of progress for journey spending from 2014 to 2024.

Travelers spent roughly $13.9 billion within the Denver area alone in 2024, making up 48.8% of the statewide whole.

The “Rockies Playground”  — which incorporates High Country and Western Slope areas like Summit, Eagle, Pitkin and Garfield counties — generated the second-highest journey spending in Colorado at $4.4 billion, the second-highest earnings at $1.5 billion, and roughly $328 million in income from state and native taxes. Travel to those counties supported over 30,000 jobs.

“The Great West” area — which encompasses different components of the Western Slope, together with components of Eagle, Garfield, Grand, Jackson, Moffat, Rio Blanco and Routt counties — generated $1.5 billion in journey spending, $112 million from state and native taxes, and earned $540 million from tourism in 2024.

Despite the rise in spending from guests to the Western Slope, the place they’re spending cash is shifting barely. Retail gross sales, meals shops, transportation and fuel all noticed decreased customer spending in comparison with final yr, starting from a 0.1% lower to a 12% lower. Earnings, nevertheless, had been constructive throughout the board.

The majority of those journey trade earnings — 54% — are distributed to the Denver area, with nearly 15% going to the Rockies Playground. Travel earnings make up a a lot larger portion of whole earnings within the Rockies in comparison with the Denver area, with earnings from journey making up over 11% of whole earnings within the High Country versus solely 2.6% in Denver.

The Great West area, alternatively, noticed much less whole spending from tourism in 2024 than it did the yr prior by roughly 3.2%. The drop accompanies 22% much less spending on inns within the space, and decreased buying in retail, transportation, arts and meals companies. The Great West area’s earnings nonetheless got here out within the inexperienced, with a 4.2% progress between 2023 and 2024.

Visitors are older, wealthier, and spendier

Travel to Colorado is turning into an exercise for the rich. In 2023, solely 18% of holiday makers had an annual revenue between $100,000 and just below $150,000. One yr later, that demographic now makes up 23% of vacationers within the state. Those within the decrease revenue brackets are additionally making up a smaller portion of holiday makers, with 31% of holiday makers making lower than $50,000 in 2024 in comparison with 34% in 2023.

Reasons for journey to Colorado have additionally shifted barely since 2023. The variety of vacationers visiting mates and family members within the state is down 4 share factors to 34%. Marketable journeys, nevertheless, have gained 5 share factors yr over yr.

More vacationers to Colorado in 2024 chose to stay in hotels than in 2023, with the reverse being true about guests who keep within the properties or their mates or family members. Although 34% of holiday makers recognized seeing mates/household as the primary goal of their journey, solely 16% of in a single day guests selected to stick with mates or household as their lodging.

In 2024, the common age of a vacationer in Colorado was 42 years previous, up barely from 41.2 in 2023. Although Colorado outpaces the U.S. in youthful guests between the ages of 18 and 34, it lags in attracting the 55-and-up crowd, which is anticipated to have a larger financial influence on tourism sooner or later because it turns into the age demographic with the biggest disposable revenue, in accordance with Brian Screptock, director of shopper companies at Longwoods International.

In 2024, roughly 23% of journey events had a member who required accessibility companies for in a single day journeys to Colorado — 5 share factors above the U.S. norm. The amount of those guests who expressed being happy with the state’s ease of accessibility, 48%, can also be considerably larger than the 13% who expressed being happy only one yr earlier.

“Nowhere else in the country is this occurring,” Screptock stated. “The work that the state is doing on accessibility, it is noted, your travelers are noticing this, and it is obviously a benefit to you.”