Colorado tourism numbers set record in 2014

A record 71.3 million visitors spent $18.6 billion in Colorado in 2014, marking a high point for the state’s thriving tourism industry.

With Denver and high country resort communities reporting record performances in 2014, it’s not surprising the state set new benchmarks for tourism last year.

The Colorado Tourism Office on Tuesday released a trio of reports showing the state outpacing national growth rates in every tourism category. It was the fourth year in a row that visitor counts and spending increased in Colorado.

“We are far outstripping the national average at getting our share of guests into Colorado,” said Al White, director of the Colorado Tourism Office who soon will be taking on a role as senior consultant with the state’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

This isn’t about marijuana, White said.

“This is because we are doing a good job in Colorado. Is marijuana beneficial?” White said. “Marginally, yes I think it may be a decision influencer for some people coming.”

White had research outfit Strategic Marking & Research Insights, or SMARI, ask travelers it polled whether marijuana played a role in their decision to possibly take a vacation in the state.

Sixty-five percent said marijuana didn’t make a difference. Among the rest, 16 percent said they were more likely to visit because of legal recreational weed sales, and 18 percent said pot sales made them less likely to visit.

“So it’s a double-edged sword,” White said. “We have had records for the last four years in a row, and three years of those marijuana wasn’t even legal. It may be a modest benefit to us, but it is not the reason we are seeing great records.”

The highlights from 2014:

• Research firm Dean Runyan & Associates tallied direct spending by visitors at $18.6 billion, with 66 percent of that coming from overnight visitors who paid for lodging. That’s a 7.4 percent increase over 2013, which also was a record year for Colorado. The national annual growth rate in visitor expenditures for 2014 was 4.5 percent.

• Runyan reported that the Denver metro area accounted for more than half of the state’s travel spending, with mountain resorts making up the next largest chunk at 23 percent. But Runyan’s survey showed mountain resorts accounting for 24.6 percent of all travel-generated earnings, versus 4.1 percent of all travel-generated earnings coming from the Denver metro area. (Explanation: Holidays are pricier in Vail than Lakewood.)

• Runyan’s research showed the state’s tourism-dependent businesses generating $1.1 billion in local and state taxes in 2014, surpassing the billion-dollar mark for the first time. That’s about $215 in tax revenue for every Colorado resident.

• Tourism supported 155,300 jobs in Colorado in 2014, a 3.3 percent increase over 2013. Those workers earned $5.1 billion in 2014, a 7.1 percent increase over 2013.

• Longwoods International, which surveys 2 million travelers each year for its state and city clients, tallied a record 71.3 million visitors to Colorado in 2014. Overnight trips reached 33.6 million, an increase of 8 percent over 2013.

• Colorado remains the country’s top ski destination with a 21 percent share of all overnight ski trips.

• Longwoods showed a record 16.1 million of 2014’s visitors were influenced by the state’s marketing campaign. Visits to friends and family climbed 11 percent in 2014 to a new high of 13.3 million.

• Overnight visitors to Colorado spent $12.5 billion in 2014, a 19 percent increase over 2013. Spending by daytrippers reached $2.7 billion, up 27 percent from 2013.

• Spending by overnight visitors in 2014 climbed in all five main business sectors of the state’s tourism industry: lodging spending was up 18 percent to $3.4 billion, transportation spending rose 20 percent to $2.9 billion, food and drink spending climbed 24 percent to $2.6 billion, sightseeing and attractions spending climbed 14 percent to $1.9 billion, and retail spending climbed 21 percent to $1.7 billion.

• Longwoods showed that travelers staying in vacation rental homes contributed 21 percent to all travel expenditures, revealing the soaring role of rent-by-owner homes in the travel industry.

• The top out-of-state markets for Colorado vacationers were California, Texas, Illinois, Florida and New York. Colorado residents remained the top vacationers in their own state, making up 34 percent of all overnight leisure travelers in 2014, which marks a decline from 2013 and 2014.

The state’s top tourism champions credited — not surprisingly — their work for the surge in visitors. The state’s 4-year-old, $7.2 million “Come To Life” ad campaign generated 1.7 million additional trips to Colorado, according to SMARI.

That means the state’s television, print and radio ads — $5.3 million for summer and $1.9 million for winter — stirred a $2.6 billion impact between April 2014 and March 2015, according to SMARI.

“It’s a very strong campaign that makes a very close and personal connection with people and makes them want to visit Colorado,” said Denise Miller, a vice president at SMARI.

Most important for tourism leaders who lobby state legislators for increased tourism marketing money each year, the ad campaign delivered $361 for every $1 invested, a return on investment that will certainly highlight next year’s tourism lobbying efforts. That’s up from a $228 return on each dollar invested in 2012.

“This is why the legislature likes to give us money,” White said. “Because we give them back way more than they give us.”

Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jasonblevins