Colorado Tourism Office Research
Access to tourism-related research is becoming an increasingly important aspect of the annual work plan of tourism organizations. A robust research strategy provides the ability to establish benchmarks that communicate performance and help predict how factors within our destinations and industry sectors might shift in the future.
The Colorado Tourism Office is committed to providing the statewide tourism industry with timely research that can help inform future activities. Please review the resources below to learn more about what research is available.
Annual Colorado Tourism Office Research
Each year, the Colorado Tourism Office invests in research that helps to inform the economic impacts of the tourism industry and the statewide visitor profile. The two reports below are published each Summer for the previous calendar year.
Dean Runyan Associates Annual Economic Impact
The Dean Runyan Associates report provides insights into the economic impact of the tourism industry in Colorado. Information is available related to travel spending, tourism-related employment, and state and local tax revenue. The information is provided for the state, the travel regions, and the 64 Colorado counties.
A county-specific dashboard is also available that provides a more interactive review of this economic impact data.
Dean Runyan Associates Annual Economic Impact By Colorado Legislative District
Dean Runyan Associates also produces a report that provides insights into the economic impact of the Colorado tourism industry within the 35 senate districts and 65 house districts. The information includes visitor spending, employment, tax revenue, and tax benefits per household within each district.
- Colorado Travel Impacts by State House District (2022)
- Colorado Travel Impacts by State Senate District (2022)
Longwoods International Travel USA Report
The Longwoods Travel USA report is the longest ongoing study conducted of domestic travelers. The Colorado report provides insights into the number of annual visitors to Colorado, their demographics, and the types of activities and experiences they are engaging in during their stay.
Additional Tourism-Related Research
The Colorado Tourism Office has also compiled additional publicly available research that provides insights into the national tourism industry.
TSA Passenger Throughput
The Transportation Security Agency tracks the total number of passengers that pass through their checkpoints. Numbers are reported daily and go back to 2019. Access the full dataset.
Leveraging Research To Champion The Value Of Tourism
Tourism organizations have an opportunity to utilize tourism-related research to build awareness of the value of tourism accross Colorado. Guidance on ways to implement this is provided below:
Colorado Tourism's Surprising Benefits Video
The Colorado Tourism Office produced a video that communicates the ways in which tourism benefits the state of Colorado and its residents. A longer version of the video is available for industry events and presentations and a shorter version is available for social media.
Long-form video (2:30)
Short-form video (0:30)
Champion the Value of Tourism Subject Matter Expert Form
Although having access to research is beneficial, it is often helpful to have access to a subject matter expert that can walk you through the content and help answer research questions related to how the information can be applied to your work.
The Colorado Tourism Office has a tourism subject matter expert that is available to schedule one-hour consultations with Colorado tourism industry partners that are interested in understanding how to leverage research to champion the value of tourism. Up to 7 additional hours of consulting are available if a specific action item or research question emerges from the consultation.
Submit this form to sign up for a free hour-long consultation.