{"id":7171,"date":"2017-01-25T20:57:26","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T20:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=2381410"},"modified":"2017-01-25T20:57:26","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T20:57:26","slug":"fewer-travelers-came-to-colorado-in-2016-tourism-office-blames-waning-interest-in-legal-weed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/fewer-travelers-came-to-colorado-in-2016-tourism-office-blames-waning-interest-in-legal-weed\/","title":{"rendered":"Fewer travelers came to Colorado in 2016, tourism office blames waning interest in legal weed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/fewer-travelers-came-to-colorado-in-2016-tourism-office-blames-waning-interest-in-legal-weed\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Colorado\u2019s workhorse \u201cCome To Life\u201d tourism advertising campaign lured fewer travelers in the spring and summer of 2016, but those visitors spent more.<\/p>\n<p>Spending among out-of-state travelers who viewed the ads increased 4 percent, even though the number of Colorado-bound tourists fell 9.5 percent, according the Colorado Tourism Office\u2019s latest research.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers blamed waning interest among marijuana tourists \u2014 visitors who traveled to Colorado largely for the legal weed \u2014 for the drop in advertising-influenced visitors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c2016 represented a return to the more usual Colorado traveler,\u201d Colorado Tourism Office director Cathy Ritter said, noting that the latest research shows the novelty of being able to purchase and consume marijuana has leveled off and Colorado is attracting a slightly older, more affluent traveler who leaves more cash in their wake.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2097857\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone size-article_inline\"><img width=\"4704\" alt=\"Marijuana tour in Denver\" class=\"lazyload \" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n<p>Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post<\/p>\n<p>Mike Goldstein of New York photographs himself with plants at La Conte\u2019s grow facility during a marijuana tour hosted by My 420 Tours in Denver on Dec. 6, 2014. During the day tourists visited La Conte\u2019s grow facility, La Conte\u2019s Clone Bar &amp; Dispensary, Native Roots dispensary and Illuzions Glass Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>According to Indianapolis-based\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.smari.com\/\">Strategic Marketing and Research Insight<\/a>, influenced spending \u2014 tourism speak for money spent by tourists who viewed ads in markets where promoters cast their nets \u2014 reached $2.72 billion in the spring and summer of 2016, up about $120 million compared with the previous record-setting year. But the number of visitors saying they came to Colorado after seeing the \u201cCome To Life\u201d ads fell to 1.9 million last year from a high of 2.1 million in the spring and summer of 2015. In 2014, the ad campaign generated 1.7 million trips to Colorado, stirring a $2.6 billion impact.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>That works well for Ritter, who, after several listening session tours across the state last year, is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/10\/10\/colorado-tourism-boom\/\">sculpting a new tourism mission<\/a> that focuses on luring \u201chigh-value\u201d tourists to Colorado, and pushing the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/09\/17\/colorados-mountain-towns-too-busy\/\">right travelers to the right places<\/a>. The latest research, shows the effort is \u201cgoing in the right direction,\u201d Ritter said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s always good news for Colorado when there\u2019s a great economic benefit from a lesser impact,\u201d she said. \u201cOne thing we heard loud and clear in our listening sessions is an interest in sustainable tourism. We want to be taking approaches that would reduce the impact on our environment and even making travelers part of the solution in creating a better environment for Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cascading waterfalls and happy families plucking wildflowers around lonely lakes featured in the state\u2019s soon-to-be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2013\/01\/16\/colorado-ad-campaign-delivered-nearly-900-million-in-tourism-spending\/\">6-year-old \u201cCome To Life\u201d campaign<\/a> \u2014 cultivated by Denver\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.karshhagan.com\/work\/colorado-cometolife\">Karsh Hagan agency<\/a> \u2014 continues to rank as one of the most effective tourism efforts in the country, according to Denise Miller, the SMARI executive who planned to present the latest research to the Colorado Tourism Office board on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Miller\u2019s research shows the 2016 drop-off in ad-influenced visitors stemmed from a decline in the number of tourists who said legal marijuana was a motivator for their visit to Colorado.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2015\/12\/09\/marijuana-has-huge-influence-on-colorado-tourism-state-survey-says-2\/\">7 percent of travelers surveyed by SMARI<\/a> said visiting a dispensary was a top reason for their visit to Colorado. In 2016, that number dropped to 4 percent. Top motivators for a Colorado holiday in 2016, according to SMARI, included scenic drives, hiking, backpacking and visiting a state park, national park or historic site.<\/p>\n<p>That 24 percent, record-setting spike in advertising-drawn travelers in 2015 \u2014 surging to 2.1 million from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2015\/06\/23\/colorado-tourism-numbers-set-record-in-2014\/\">1.7 million <\/a>the year before\u00a0\u2014 \u201cmay have been a one-year anomaly, driven by demand among younger, lower-spending travelers curious about legal marijuana,\u201d according to a release by the Colorado Tourism Office announcing the new research.<\/p>\n<p>The typical Colorado traveler profile, according to SMARI, returned to its more traditional roots in 2016: an average age of 45, well educated and with a higher income, spending on average $1,401 on their Colorado vacation in 2016, up from $1,250 in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Ritter said the latest surveys of Colorado travelers show the value of conducting in-depth research every year over a period of several years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cColorado has been charting new ground with this change in the law,\u201d she said. \u201cWe really have have been able to measure and see the change in behavior over the last few years and this could be instructive to other states. It certainly makes sense for Colorado to lead the way here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, the state <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/07\/20\/record-colorado-tourism-2015\/\">lured 77.7 million visitors who spent $19.1 billion<\/a>, marking a fifth record year in a row for an industry that generated $1.13 billion in state and local taxes. The Colorado Tourism Office will release the full results of the 2016 tourism years \u2014 including more SMARI research and the results of the annual survey by tourism-measuring firm Longwoods International \u2014 in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fewer tourists visited Colorado in 2016 and researchers say it&#8217;s because the novelty of legal marijuana is waning. Those who did visit in 2016 spent more, though. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5062,6811,6938,6825,77,6921,9,5019,6937,1,3,2035,61,1736],"tags":[5063,6816,6940,6827,2655,6922,5022,6939,4603],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}