TAPP says 2026 tourism not as bad as expected

Declines mitigated by strong spring visitation

by Katherine Nettles

While local experts had predicted earlier this year that 2026 was likely to show close to double-digit declines in tourism numbers and spending, the county-wide numbers are emerging as less drastic than many expected. Gunnison County Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP) leaders met with Gunnison County commissioners in a work session last week to review overall Local Marketing District (LMD) performance this year, marketing strategies for 2027 and TAPP’s economic/social partnerships to diversify the economy and support quality of life for locals.

TAPP executive director Andrew Sandstrom shared the positive news that despite earlier projections that the year could be down as much as 5-10% in total LMD collections due to the dismal snowfall last winter and subsequent smoke and wildfire potential, things are looking far better ahead of August visitation and sales tax revenue data. 

March alone showed a 25% decline in LMD revenue as skiers largely gave up on destination skiing due to record low snowfall across the valley and state. “We had a tough winter. I think everybody did. Vail Resorts reported skier visits in the mountain west were down 25%. We were down in the 10-11% range, so less bad than others but still a historically bad snow year,” said Sandstrom.

“As that was progressing, we made a pretty aggressive switch toward some of the spring [marketing] content,” he continued. That included gravel riding and fishing in the southern end of the valley, said TAPP marketing director Katie Mooney.

“We were able to really grow that April/May/June shoulder season,” said Sandstrom. “We saw great growth in that area.” He said with some preliminary numbers from the county, July appears to have been about flat with indications that a late reporting vendor will tick that up to a 2-3% increase for July.

“When we look at the whole year overall, when we came to you guys in May I was thinking we’d be down 5-7%. Now I’m thinking we’re probably going to be closer to 1.5 to 2% down for the year, which is a massive improvement,” said Sandstrom.

He credited the team’s marketing pivot for a great deal of that shift. 

TAPP’s overall prediction for the year is about $3.7 million in LMD collections. Based on that, TAPP is requesting a flat budget for 2027, which is $3.125 million. 

Sandstrom also reviewed TAPP’s mission and goals. “Costs have outpaced incomes, making living here challenging for the working class,” he identified in an opening statement to the presentation. “TAPP is one aspect of that, but we are working with many other entities that are working on this same problem.”

Beyond tourism

Sandstrom identified tourism as still the biggest economic driver in the county, but TAPP is looking at how it can expand and diversify that mainstay.

Sandstrom said that the valley’s amenity economy is vital to its success, as a draw to visitors and anchor for locals.

“Three out of four dollars coming into the county from outside comes from the amenity economy,” he said, based on LMD and economic data TAPP has collected.

“Our mission is to leverage LMD and grant monies to develop and maintain a robust and diversified economy,” he said. He acknowledged other social and ecological aspects to community prosperity as well, including higher-paying jobs/career paths, education, housing, natural resource preservation/stewardship and sustainability. He said TAPP works on those issues mainly through partnerships with various committees and organizations in the valley, including the Gunnison County Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation (STOR) Committee and Western Colorado University (WCU).

Marketing what works

Mooney reviewed the highlights of TAPP’s 2026 campaigns, including non-snow marketing such as shoulder season activities of gravel biking and fishing at the south end of the valley. “People went crazy for our gravel biking ads,” she said. “We saw a ton of interest in fishing ads as well.”

She said marketing has also begun focusing on event planning and hobby groups like the classic car rallies that come through town, because these bring in new visitors from a variety of places and they tend to book early. 

Mooney said TAPP has continued focusing on the non-stop flight market as well, and as the Colorado Tourism Office budget has been cut repeatedly over the last few years, “it falls on the local destinations to market themselves.”

She also noted TAPP has made a messaging shift to include stewardship and sustainable tourism in all its marketing, to draw like-minded people who value the natural resources of the valley and will respect them.

Commissioner Laura Puckett Daniels thanked the TAPP team for that stewardship initiative, which was a direct goal from the county’s STOR Committee.

While TAPP has activated The Hub in Gunnison, a shared workspace and warehouse for small businesses, and now operates the ICELab from there, TAPP has moved out of the former ICELab space on WCU’s campus. “Western is still deciding what to do with it,” ICELab director TJ Taylor said. But he emphasized that TAPP remains strong partners with WCU and works with them to foster network connections through career services, the engineering school, the outdoor athlete program, internships, the school of business and more.

Sandstrom said that the Western and Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) research collaboration has gone well with several successful projects having kicked off and more student internship opportunities established. He said they now see an offramp for TAPP’s funding of that partnership between WCU and RMBL on those efforts, but there is other opportunity developing with an industrial design program that might tie in to The Hub, and the biomedical and aerospace research programs that have potential future tie-ins with RMBL and the GUC airport, respectively.

For 2027, Sandstrom said the main goal is helping WCU get students real-world opportunities. He said marketing collaboration with WCU is the focus in the near-term. He noted that since the collaboration started between TAPP and WCU’s Mountain Sports Program a few years ago, enrollment in that program is up 50%. “It’s such a natural crossover in our tourism marketing,” he said.

Commissioners Puckett Daniels and Liz Smith spoke to their appreciation of TAPP’s relationship with WCU and the connection to WCU having the largest freshman class this year that it has had in years.

Sandstrom and Taylor said TAPP’s 2027 economic diversification goals are to work on programming at The Hub, and build more support for businesses and leverage local, regional and statewide networks. Other TAPP goals for 2027 are to grow lodging revenues in winter and promote flights with the goal to minimize minimum revenue guarantees (MRGs), increase flight frequency and expand destination markets.

Commissioners will consider TAPP’s budget request later this fall as they dive into budgeting, but commissioner Smith said she appreciated the economic diversity focus and commented that as they look at diverting some LMD funds for potential childcare initiatives it is tough looking at what are “sometimes competing goals.”