The recently completed National Travel and Tourism Week — America’s annual salute to travel and tourism — was established by a congressional resolution in 1983. This week of events served to champion the power of the tourism industry.
Tourism is one of Colorado’s most important industries. In 2014 Colorado set all-time records welcoming 71.3 million visitors to the state who spent $18.6 billion and generated $1.1 billion in tax revenue. The 2015 travel year research will be released in next month and all indications are that Colorado will see new tourism records set.
The Vail Valley is primed to benefit from this. The latest lodging occupancy reports were recently published by DestiMetrics, and to no surprise show little-to-no growth in winter lodging occupancies. Lodging rates did increase for the winter season, and the yet to be published lodging sales tax collections should be slightly up over last year. An early Easter holiday compressed key spring break and international visitation, and Vail Mountain’s extended season should have some benefits to driving last-minute traffic to the lodging community and resulting retail and restaurant activities.
Looking ahead, “on the books” reservations for the spring and summer (data available through September) are very strong with pacing increases ranging from +13% to +23% throughout the valley and an average increase of +17%. Business looks strong throughout the summer season, with every month pacing ahead of last year and mid-week business pacing up for the most part throughout the summer. Group business is strong (both on-the-books group programs, as well as lead generation and future business pipeline), and Epic Discovery’s launch this summer on Vail Mountain should have positive impacts as well. Enplanements to the Eagle County Regional Airport continue a downward trend, but summer service from Houston, Dallas, and Denver continues this season and new service from Los Angeles starts in June. On a national level, consumer confidence is slightly up and the index of leading economic indicators is trending slightly positive.
The State of the American Traveler, published by Destination Analytics, also showed that mountain destinations or resorts – while somewhat less frequented than beach vacations, theme parks, or urban destinations – attract a significant share of travelers. 30 percent of leisure travelers expect to visit a mountain destination or resort this year.
Additionally, the report showed that prices at the gas pump are a non-issue for the summer drive market. Most leisure travel continues to be by car, the price of gasoline had traditionally been a key factor in trip decision making. Things have changed radically, driven by recent downward trends in gas prices. Fewer and fewer American travelers are now saying that high gasoline prices are causing them to reduce their travels. From a high of 53.6 percent in 2011, the proportion of American travelers cutting back on their travel due to gas prices fell to 16.9 percent.
Some additional points of interest from the State of the American Traveler:
- American destinations can expect high levels of excitement around leisure travel segments this year. In our latest Destinations Edition of this study, 34.2 percent of travelers said that they will increase the number of leisure trips taken this year, up from 31.1 percent one year earlier. 34.4 percent also now plan to devote more money to travel. Demand for leisure travel is strong across regions, destination types and income brackets, but is most pronounced amongst younger, urban residents.
- The vast majority of Americans are leisure travelers who have taken at least one trip (50 miles+ from home) in the past year. On average, Americans took 4.4 trips; with about one third taking five or more. Cities and metropolitan areas are by far the most visited destination type, with nearly three out of four of us planning to visit one this year. The second most frequented destination type will be “small towns, villages or rural destinations/attractions,” with the average traveler visiting 1.1 such places in 2016. Beach destination and resorts will generate fewer visits, but still more than half of Americans will include them in our 2016 itineraries.
Additional facts as we enter our summer tourism season:
- 45% of American leisure travelers took only overnight trips during 2016.
- Staycations are still popular. These vacations spent at home (rather than traveling) seem to be here to stay.
- 36% of the average 4.4 total trips taken were 200 or fewer miles from home.
- About a third of Americans say they will enjoy one of our National Parks this year.
- The average traveler said they could budget as much as $3,445 for leisure travel this year, up 7% from one year ago.
- Almost one quarter of adults (23%) traveled with 3+generations in a travel party–averaging 2 such trips in the year.
Chris Romer is president & CEO of Vail Valley Partnership