Local visitors’ associations lack useful data on tourism

In preparation for this column, we looked for measured data on tourism, substantiated estimates or surveys of how many tourists visit Northern Colorado each year.We needed to know what attractions these tourists visited and their expenditures. Surprisingly, we found very little information; we were unable to uncover specific data on numbers of tourists and expenditures.
Northern Colorado has many attractions to capture tourist visits, including Rocky Mountain National Park, the Greeley Stampede, BrewFests, NewWestFest, Cheyenne Frontier Days, Laramie Jubilee Days, and many artist and other specialized festivals, especially in Loveland and Estes Park.
Most of these are summer events,…