Economy & Economic Development  August 26, 2016

Estes sees formidable economic impact from national park

ESTES PARK — A weekend of free admission to Rocky Mountain National Park to mark the National Park Service’s centennial is expected to further boost the park’s economic impact on Estes Park.

Figures released this week by the park west of the tourist village showed that 912,507 people visited the park in July, a 6.3 percent increase from the same month in 2015. Most of those visitors came through the two Estes Park entrances; the Beaver Meadows entrance along U.S. Highway 36 saw 359,498 visitors, 1.6 percent more than in July 2015, and 216,351 accessed the park through the Fall River entrance along U.S. Highway 34, a 12.6 percent increase from the same month last year.

By the end of July, the park had a total of 2,384,616 visitors, up 10.3 percent from the first seven months of 2015.

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Rocky Mountain became the third-most visited national park in the nation this year, trailing only Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina in first place and Arizona’s Grand Canyon in second.

A study of 2015 impacts released this month by Bozeman, Mont.-based Headwaters Economics showed that a total of 4,155,917 people visited Rocky Mountain National Park last year, spending more than $268 million and creating 4,144 jobs that earned a total of more than $152 million.

According to Brooke Burnham, director of marketing and communications for Visit Estes Park, a recent study by Colorado Springs-based Summit Economics showed that access to the national park trailed only “relaxing mountain getaway” as the reason visitors choose Estes Park as their travel destination.

Nearly three-quarters of all Estes Park tourists visit the national park during their stay, the survey found, including 82 percent of overnight guests and 67 percent of day visitors.

Even in 2010, while the nation still was recovering from the Great Recession, visitors to Estes Park who reported that they spent money were feeding the local economy an average of about $138 a day — $165 for those staying overnight and $88 per person for day visitors.

ESTES PARK — A weekend of free admission to Rocky Mountain National Park to mark the National Park Service’s centennial is expected to further boost the park’s economic impact on Estes Park.

Figures released this week by the park west of the tourist village showed that 912,507 people visited the park in July, a 6.3 percent increase from the same month in 2015. Most of those visitors came through the two Estes Park entrances; the Beaver Meadows entrance along U.S. Highway 36 saw 359,498 visitors, 1.6 percent more than in July 2015, and 216,351 accessed the park through the Fall River…

Dallas Heltzell
With BizWest since 2012 and in Colorado since 1979, Dallas worked at the Longmont Times-Call, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Post and Public News Service. A Missouri native and Mizzou School of Journalism grad, Dallas started as a sports writer and outdoor columnist at the St. Charles (Mo.) Banner-News, then went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before fleeing the heat and humidity for the Rockies. He especially loves covering our mountain communities.
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