Tourism is slightly up in the valley this summer

Bucking the Western Slope slump trend

By Katherine Nettles

According to recent analysis of mountain towns across the Western Slope and initial data from local tourism officials, the Gunnison Valley currently appears to be more successful in maintaining and even slightly increasing tourism than many other mountain destinations. Lodging occupancy and rates are up, and visitor stay lengths have rebounded this summer in the county, compared with declines across many of the state’s other resort areas. 

Last week Governor Jared Polis’ office shared an annual report showing that tourism contributed $28.5 billion to the Colorado economy and supported 188,210 jobs across the state in 2024. The report, commissioned by the Colorado Tourism Office, indicates that tourism remains an important economic driver across Colorado, but “increasing competition and uncertainty related to federal policy changes” are putting pressure on one of Colorado’s key industries. 

The report showed that occupancy across the state was down 2% through June, with 13.8 million ski-season visitors last winter—a decline from the previous three seasons, but still above the long-term average for Colorado resorts. Hotel revenue state-wide was also down, and the first quarter of 2025 saw a 10% annual dip in short-term rental bookings.

This week The Colorado Sun reported, “mid-season reports from mountain towns show a rare summer slowdown. The booking pace at 17 mountain towns in seven Western states declined every month in the past six months compared with the previous year, marking the longest downward trend since the onset of the pandemic in 2020.”

Total hotel revenues have decreased statewide 2.7% to date over 2024, but Gunnison County is experiencing a slightly different and more desirable trend.

The Gunnison County Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP) had in the fall of 2024 predicted a slight downturn for 2025 and noted after last summer’s decline in visitor stay lengths (from an average of five nights per person to four nights) that such declining visitation lengths needed to be addressed. That seems to have happened, as TAPP executive director Andrew Sandstrom shared with the News this week that this summer visitation returned to an average of five nights per visitor.  

“Generally, in the wintertime we were pacing similar to the state. We had a slight decrease early on, especially with little snow falling through January,” said Sandstrom. 

He said TAPP’s location data tracking shows fewer visitors to the valley overall this summer, but a longer duration has made up the difference. 

“This summer we seem to be bucking the trend,” said Sandstrom of the state’s report. “Lodging occupancy is up in the 2-3% range and visitor days are pacing up 2-3%, similar to occupancy.”

Sandstrom said August visitation is pacing to be slightly down from last year, but September is pacing up. This may be a return to the pre-COVID pattern as many visitors (or their children) prepare to get back to school. “It’s a little different demographic that we get in the fall, with older or single visitors without young kids,” he said.

TAPP collects data in two ways: one is by analyzing the booking platforms from about 1,200 units in valley, most of which are from larger commercial lodges in the North Valley, and the other is by analyzing online listings from Airbnb and VRBO, including rates and availability. 

Local marketing district revenues and sales tax revenues usually take a couple months for an accurate tally, but May’s numbers were just released and LMD revenue 
was up about 12%. Sandstrom noted that one month of revenue is not generally an accurate picture, since some lodging properties remit payments on different schedules, whether monthly, quarterly or otherwise. 

Another indication of the tourism economy is flight bookings into the Gunnison-Crested Butte airport, which include an increasing local market but do continue to pace very strong. 

“Reliability and frequency have made much more opportunities for connections,” said Sandstrom.

The state’s tourism office reported that competition for travelers and the associated traveler spending is increasing across the U.S. “While travel-related spending increased 0.3% in Colorado in 2024, the same metric increased 4.2% nationally,” stated the report. It also highlighted that Colorado’s market share of tourism spending has decreased in recent years, dropping from a high of 2.1% in 2019 to 1.8% in 2024. “Additionally, federal policy changes in 2025 have created uncertainty to the tourism industry,” it concluded. 

The Sun reported that international visitation to the U.S. overall has declined 21% from Aussie and Kiwi travelers, 39% from European travelers and 58% from Canadians.

What does help to some extent is lodging rate increases. “The rate is pacing up about 8% ahead,” Sandstrom said of the valley’s lodging prices. Statewide that number is closer to 4%.

Last, inspiring loyalty and trip frequency seem to matter when winning over visitors. The state report showed that 86% of overnight travelers to Colorado are repeat visitors, and a majority (64%) have visited within the previous 12 months.