The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Wait, we had visitors from Taiwan?
[ by Mark Reaman ]The Crested Butte-Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce presented its 2025 annual report to both Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte town councils and showed it was fairly busy last year.
Between the headquarters at the Crested Butte Four-Way Stop and the Mt. Crested Butte Transit Center location, the Chamber tallied 33,654 walk-in visitors and fielded 3,170 phone calls along with 580 emails from visitors. The Mt. CB location accounted for 13,141 visitors, primarily during the winter months of ski season and the middle of summer, while July was the busiest month downtown recording not quite 8,000 of its 20,513 walk-ins.
In her report to the councils, Chamber executive director Heather Leonard stated that while “2024 was the year of analysis and alignment, 2025 was the year of implementation and streamlining…the Chamber put foundational work into action, strengthening operations, improving visitor services and deepening partnership across the community.”
Leonard pointed out that in 2025 the Chamber implemented a new website and new customer relations management (CRM) system. It also expanded retail opportunities at the Four-Way Stop location and created a 501c3 Chamber foundation. She said that thanks in part to payroll raises, the Chamber has a strong team of returning staff but also expanded opportunities to partner with local high school students during the summer season.
She said while this winter’s challenging snowfall has hindered some visits, “both visitor centers remained a valuable resource for guest and the community alike.”
As for actual visitors, the majority of them, or 24% were in the 55- to 64-year-old demographic. The younger 25- to 35-year-old demographic accounted for 14%. Aside from visiting for the obvious tourism opportunities in summer or winter, coming to the valley as part of a wedding celebration accounted for about 16% of the people who stopped in the Chamber visitor’s centers. As for where they came from, 39% were from Colorado, 13% from Texas, 16% from the Midwest and 14% from the South. Globally, visitors came around the world. At least a few walk-ins were recorded from places like Norway, Costa Rica, Australia, South Africa and Taiwan. Canadians led the international visitors at 16% followed by England at 13% and New Zealand at 11%.
Goals for 2026 include holding monthly winter webinars that connect the business community with various resources, increasing social media engagement, growing retail at the Four-Way to see a net profit of at least $15,000 and increasing membership to 320 from the current number of about 298.
“With our new website and CRM in place, the Chamber is in a better position to support businesses and the visitor experience,” Leonard concluded. “We’re looking forward to continuing to show our value to our community.”
