denver tourism statistics 2023

The Colorado Sun

Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state.

Tourists quickly returned to Colorado’s mountain towns during COVID. But they’re just now getting back to Denver.

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• Original Reporting
• On the Ground

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The urban workhorse of Colorado’s tourism industry is finally recovering from COVID.

Denver and its Front Range neighbors have endured long-haul symptoms from the pandemic, as convention and city tourism struggled to recover from shutdowns and the collapse of both leisure and business tourism.

While other more rural communities rebounded quickly — perhaps too quickly as crowds overwhelmed mountain towns enduring a labor shortage — Colorado’s urban tourism industry in Denver has not yet reached pre-pandemic levels of traffic. 

But it is getting there. The latest study by the city of Denver shows the metro area’s visitor levels pacing right behind the record-setting performance of 2019 and regaining much of the loss the city experienced during the height of the pandemic.

Travelers made 31.7 million trips to the city last year, only slightly fewer the 31.9 million trips made pre-pandemic and and a 14.5% increase from 2020, according to the latest report by travel research firm Longwoods International, which has compiled annual tallies of Colorado tourism since the 1990s. 

Travel spending brought in $6.6 billion for Denver in 2021 — a 26% jump from the year before, new data shows. Leisure travel carried Denver’s rebound with 14.8 million trips, compared with 11.6 million in 2020. 

“Thankfully, Denver is a very resilient economy and we have worked closely together to get ourselves out of this and on to recovery,” said Richard Scharf, president and CEO of Visit Denver. “So I think the worst part is behind us.”

More than 15 million day trips were made in 2021, with people traveling at least 50 miles from home to visit top attractions, including Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, Denver Art Museum, Denver Zoo, and the Colorado Rockies. The 16th Street Mall and Cherry Creek Mall were among the top shopping destinations. 

But the recovery is uneven. After business travel to Colorado collapsed in 2020, dropping to 1.8 million trips from 2.4 million in 2019, the number of people traveling to Denver for work barely budged last year. 

“We know that the business traveler and the convention business is going to be a slow ramp up. We’ve seen that and we know that’s going to be true for a little while,” Scharf said. 

Since Outdoor Retailer, a twice-a-year trade show, decamped Denver for its former home of Salt Lake City, Scharf said Denver has been approached by “innovative outdoor shows” that “are trying to take advantage of the new frontier.” He declined to give more details. 

The national outdoor trade show had a $45 million annual impact for Denver. 

“We hate to have them leave, but we run a pretty good occupancy in the summers,” Scharf said. “We’ve got great demand.” 

As Colorado began to welcome visitors back in 2020, the state’s tourism office revived marketing campaigns, using federal stimulus dollars, to buoy its tourism industry. Marketing campaigns focused on city tourism and international visitors, both of which have been slow to rebound from the pandemic and shutdowns. 

Mountain towns’ rebound from the pandemic tell a different story. As people sought wide open space amid the pandemic, managers in towns such as Crested Butte, Telluride and Breckenridge hastened their transition from destination marketing to management amid low staffing levels and affordable housing for its workers . 

Colorado’s ski areas also saw record numbers of visitors in the 2021-22 ski season with more than 14 million visitors.

In Colorado Springs, visitor numbers have surpassed pre-pandemic levels. In 2021, the city attracted 23.7 million visitors, which was a nearly 12% increase from the previous year and more than a 5% jump from 2019, data from Visit Colorado Springs show. 

Amy Long, chief innovation officer for Visit Colorado Springs, attributed the surge of visitors to the city’s many trails and open spaces, as well as the Pikes Peak Summit Visitor Center and the cog railway, both which opened in June 2021. 

The city targeted its marketing to Colorado residents, those living in surrounding states and Texas, Long said. 

Will the rising prices at the gas pumps affect travel to Colorado in the future? Possibly, but for now, people are still hitting the roads, said Amir Eylon, president and CEO of Longwoods International. 

“People are going. They’re just finding ways to reallocate their travel budget,” Eylon said.

According to AAA’s national travel forecast , 42 million people will likely road trip over the July 4 weekend — in what would be a record for car travelers over the holiday — amid historically high gas prices. Denver is among AAA’s top 10 travel destinations for the weekend. 

“This next year is going to be a very good year for regional drive travel,” Eylon said. 

International visitors are still slowly trickling into Denver, and it’s unclear when business travel will ramp back up again.

“So we still have a long road ahead of us for recovery,” Eylon said. “But clearly Denver’s accelerating nicely down there at this point.”

Denver Lodging Market on Pace for 2023/2024 Recovery

June 10, 2022

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UN Tourism | Bringing the world closer

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Tourism on Track for Full Recovery as New Data Shows Strong Start to 2023

• All Regions

International tourism is well on its way to returning to pre-pandemic levels, with twice as many people travelling during the first quarter of 2023 than in the same period of 2022.

New Data from UNWTO: What We've Learned

The second UNWTO World Tourism Barometer of the year shows that the sector's swift recovery has continued into 2023. It shows that:

• Overall, international arrivals reached 80% of pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2023
• An estimated 235 million tourists travelled internationally in the first three months, more than double the same period of 2022.
• Tourism has continued to show its resilience. Revised data for 2022 shows over 960 million tourists travelling internationally last year, meaning two-thirds (66%) of pre-pandemic numbers were recovered.

Recovery by Region in Q1 2023:

• The Middle East saw the strongest performance as the only region exceeding 2019 arrivals (+15%) and the first to recover pre-pandemic numbers in a full quarter.
• Europe reached 90% of pre-pandemic levels, driven by strong intra-regional demand.
• Africa reached 88% and the Americas about 85% of 2019 levels
• Asia and the Pacific accelerated its recovery with  54% of pre-pandemic levels, but this upward trend is set to accelerate now that most destinations, particularly China , have re-opened.

In many places, we are close to or even above pre-pandemic levels of arrivals

The UNWTO data also analyses recovery by sub-region and by destination: Southern Mediterranean Europe and North Africa have also recovered pre-pandemic levels in Q1 2023, while Western Europe, Northern Europe, Central America and the Caribbean all came close to reaching those levels.

What it Means:

UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili says: "The start of the year has shown again tourism's unique ability to bounce back. In many places, we are close to or even above pre-pandemic levels of arrivals. However, we must remain alert to challenges ranging from geopolitical insecurity, staffing shortages, and the potential impact of the cost-of-living crisis on tourism, and we must ensure tourism's return delivers on its responsibilities as a solution to the climate emergency and as a driver of inclusive development."

International tourism receipts grew back to hit the USD1 trillion mark in 2022, growing 50% in real terms compared to 2021, driven by the important rebound in international travel. International visitor spending reached 64% of pre-pandemic levels (-36% compared to 2019, measured in real terms). By regions, Europe enjoyed the best results in 2022 with nearly USD 550 billion in tourism receipts (EUR 520 billion), or 87% of pre-pandemic levels. Africa recovered 75% of its pre-pandemic receipts, the Middle East 70% and the Americas 68%. Due to prolonged border shutdowns, Asian destinations earned about 28%.

International tourism receipts: Percentage of 2019 levels recovered in 2022(%) *

International tourist arrivals: percentage of 2019 levels recovered in q1 2023 (%)*, looking ahead: what's in store.

The Q1 2023 results are in line with UNWTO's forward-looking scenarios for the year which project international arrivals to recover 80% to 95% of pre-pandemic levels. UNWTO's Panel of Experts expressed their confidence in a strong peak season (May-August) in the Northern Hemisphere, reflected in the latest UNWTO Confidence Index which indicates performance for the period is on track to be even better than 2022.

However, tourism's recovery also faces some challenges .  According to the UNWTO Panel of Experts, the economic situation remains the main factor weighing on the effective recovery of international tourism in 2023, with high inflation and rising oil prices translating into higher transport and accommodations costs.  As a result, tourists are expected to increasingly seek value for money and travel closer to home. Uncertainty derived from the Russian aggression against Ukraine and other mounting geopolitical tensions, also continue to represent downside risks.

International Tourist Arrivals, World and Regions

Related links.

• Download the News Release in PDF
• UNWTO World Tourism Barometer - EXCERPT Volume 21 • Issue 2 • May 2023
• World Tourism Barometer (PPT version)
• The UNWTO Tourism Data Dashboard
• UNWTO World Tourism Barometer

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Related content, international tourism to reach pre-pandemic levels in 2024, international tourism to end 2023 close to 90% of pre-p..., tourism’s importance for growth highlighted in world ec..., international tourism swiftly overcoming pandemic downturn.

WFTV Orlando

Florida reports record-breaking tourism numbers in 2023

Posted: May 17, 2024 | Last updated: May 17, 2024

Florida has released some exciting new statistics about tourism in the Sunshine State.

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• Society and culture

Travel trends: 2023

Annual estimates of completed international visits to and from the UK and earnings and expenditure associated with these visits.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/traveltrends2023

Official statistics are produced impartially and free from political influence.

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Tourism Pays for Colorado

Tourism is one of the largest industries in the state of colorado. visitors stimulate the local economy and benefit hotels, meeting facilities, attractions, restaurants, cultural institutions, tour companies, transportation providers, local farmers and countless other businesses..

•  Visitors to Colorado spent $26.1 billion in 2022
• The state welcomed 90 million visitors (38.4 million overnight) in 2022.
• The tourism industry supports more than 176,800 jobs in Colorado (2022).
• Tourism saves every Colorado household $763.08 annually in taxes (this is the amount of tax dollars residents would have to pay if not for the nearly $1.7 billion in state and local taxes paid annually by visitors).

Sources: Dean Runyan Associates, Colorado Travel Impacts 2000-2022; Longwoods International, Travel Year 2022; census.gov

State Tourism Reports

In 1993, Colorado became the only state to eliminate its tourism marketing function, when it cut its $12 million promotion budget to zero. As a result, Colorado’s domestic market share plunged 30 percent within two years, representing a loss of over $1.4 billion in tourism revenue annually. Over time, the revenue loss increased to well over $2 billion yearly. To learn more about the importance of tourism marketing and the direct impact it has on Colorado's economy,  read this special report  and watch The Story of Colorado Tourism here .

Each year, Longwoods International conducts an overview of Colorado’s travel and tourism market and provides a detailed profile of the state’s visitors for each calendar year. View the annual Longwoods report .

Dean Runyan Associates annual reports describe the economic impacts of travel to and through Colorado and each of its sixty-four counties, four tourism regions, and eleven districts. View the most current report .  

State-wide Tourism Partners

Tourism industry association of colorado (tiac).

TIAC is a non-profit association of Colorado tourism-related organizations and associations uniting diverse segments of the industry into one unified voice. Membership includes restaurants, lodging, destination marketing organizations (DMOs), gaming industry, ski industry, outdoor and cultural attractions, river outfitters, campgrounds, and others. TIAC's objectives are: to be the unifying voice of the Colorado tourism industry; to foster cooperation, communication, and education among tourism-related organizations; to enhance the general understanding of the economic value and contribution of the tourism industry; and, to establish and maintain effective governmental relationships and communications with the Colorado Legislature.

Colorado Association of Destination Management Organizations (CADMO)

CADMO is the state-wide association for all of Colorado’s destination marketing organizations (DMOs), representing more than 25 towns, cities and regions throughout Colorado, as well as thousands of businesses impacted by tourism.

About Tourism Pays

Tourism careers, testimonials, tourism pays for the u.s., tourism pays for denver.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Denver Nuggets

Edwards, towns lead wolves' 106-80 blitz of murray, jokic for 2-0 series lead over champion nuggets, michael malone gets in ref's face after being infuriated by no-call.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone is visibly upset with the officials after two no-calls in the first quarter.

DENVER -- — The Minnesota Timberwolves , led by Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns , overpowered the Denver Nuggets on Monday night in a stunningly efficient 106-80 thrashing of the reigning but reeling NBA champions.

“We’ve had some really good defensive efforts this year,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said after his team took a surprising 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals. “That has to be right up there with the best of them."

The Wolves held Denver to an ugly 29-of-83 shooting night, and the most impressive thing about that was the absence of their best defender, 7-foot-1 center Rudy Gobert , who was back in Minneapolis for the birth of his son.

Gobert's fingerprints were all over this masterpiece, Finch suggested.

“Rudy's driven the defensive culture here. I think it's a testament to his impact, his presence and what he's infused into the team of how important defense is and how great it can be when we play it," Finch said. “That aside, we expect to win no matter who's with us and who's not.”

Towns and Edwards both scored 27 points as the Wolves improved to 6-0 in the playoffs and gave themselves a chance to close out the fuming Nuggets with wins Friday night and Sunday in Minneapolis.

So flustered were the Nuggets by the second quarter that coach Michael Malone threw a fit at an official and scuffling point guard Jamal Murray threw a heat pack onto the court in frustration as Towns was about to score on a layup.

Malone said he had no idea it was Murray who tossed the heat pack, saying, “I knew a heating pack was on the floor, but it was not in my field of vision."

Nor did the officials see him throw it, added crew chief Marc Davis.

“We weren’t aware it had come from the bench. If we would have been aware it came from the bench, we could have reviewed it under the hostile act trigger. The penalty would have been a technical foul,” Davis told a pool reporter.

Finch said he knew only that the heat pack had come from the Nuggets' bench.

“We tried to impress upon (the officials) that there's probably not many fans in the building that have a heat pack. So, it probably had to come from the bench, which they found logical," Finch said. "But yeah, it's inexcusable and dangerous.”

Murray, who has shot 9 for 32 in this series, left Ball Arena without comment for the second straight game. He is likely to be fined by the NBA for his actions.

Aaron Gordon led Denver with 20 points, Nikola Jokic had 16 points and 16 rebounds but their third-leading scorer was sub Justin Holliday with 13 points. Murray scored eight points on 3-of-18 shooting.

Kyle Anderson replaced Gobert in the starting lineup and had eight assists and nine rebounds and reserves Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker both scored 14.

During a 43-18 first-half flourish by the Timberwolves — Edwards was on the bench for much of it, no less — the Nuggets grew so frustrated that Malone ran way out onto the court and got in Davis' face for an extended blowup during a timeout but avoided a technical.

“Although Coach Malone was visibly upset about both his team and the officials, I did not hear him say anything unsportsmanlike that warranted a technical foul,” Davis explained.

Frustrated by their slow starts — the Nuggets have trailed by double digits in six of their seven playoff games and by nine in the other — Malone challenged his team to get off to a strong start for once.

Only Gordon heeded his coach's call, scoring 13 quick points, including a 3-pointer that brought the Nuggets to 18-17 late in the first quarter.

Things unraveled for Denver after that.

Trailing 61-35 at the break, the Nuggets' 26-point halftime deficit was Denver's largest in a home playoff game in franchise history.

Now the Nuggets, who lost consecutive games just once during the season, find themselves needing to beat Edwards four times in five tries to advance to the Western Conference finals again, a seemingly impossibility given both teams' level of play at the moment.

“The message we want to send is that we're extremely honored and blessed that we have this opportunity to go home up 2-0,” Towns said. “But we're humble in this approach.”

Edwards, for one, expects to see a different Nuggets team at Target Center this weekend.

“It worked in our favor tonight, man. That's all that was,” he said. “We made shots. They didn't. That's the defending champs over there. So, they're not going to come out and play like that again in Game 3.”

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

MIN leads 2-0

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2023-24 Northwest Standings

Sources: knicks' og anunoby, josh hart pushing to make game 7, nba playoffs 2024: conference semifinals news, schedule, scores and highlights, nuggets' jamal murray (elbow) 'feeling great' ahead of game 7.

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