Colorado breaks tourism record with 77.7 million visitors spending $19.1 billion
For the fifth year in a row, Colorado hosted a record number of tourists who have left a record amount of cash in their wake.
The Colorado Tourism Office on Wednesday reported that 77.7 million visitors to the state in 2015 spent an all-time high of $19.1 billion, generating $1.13 billion in state and local taxes, an increase of almost 7 percent from 2014.
Colorado’s 31 percent rebound in visitation from the tourism-pinching depth of the recession back in 2009 is nearly double the national recovery of 16 percent.
The numbers come from a trio of state-commissioned annual surveys of Colorado visitors: Longwoods International counts the total visitors and analyzes the types of travelers Colorado attracts; Dean Runyon Associates gauges the economic impact of those travelers; and the Strategic Marketing & Research Insights group measures the effectiveness of the state’s marketing efforts.
Tourists take photos alongside Trail Ridge Road in May. Photo by Christian Murdock, The Gazette.
Kristi Price of Colorado Springs walks through the wild flowers Monday, July 18, 2016, next to Emerald Lake near the top of Schofield Pass outside Gothic, Colo. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)