COLORADO SPRINGS – Visit Colorado Springs said it’s hoping a strong summer tourism season continues through the fall season.
“Numbers are up, we’ve seen record numbers at attractions,” commented Chelsy Offutt, director of communications for Visit Colorado Springs, which is the new name for what once was known as the Colorado Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau.
That means lots of hustle and bustle all around town and beyond.
“Now we are in the midst of fall and our beautiful Colorado colors,” she continued.
Colors here referring to the tons of gold and orange from all those autumn shaded trees. In addition to the foliage, there are festivals around almost every corner and plenty of outdoor activities to FALL into.
“You know, fall is actually one of the best times to be here in the Pikes Peak region.”
RELATED: Slideshow of fall colors in Colorado
So just how many people are coming to southern Colorado? Tourism officials often look at the tax visitors pay when staying at hotels or renting a car, and it’s still on the rise.
“Currently through July, we’re up 5.6 percent year over year.”
Visit Colorado Springs said this places the organization on a good trajectory for this fall season. However, will that positive trend extend through into winter?
“We kind of have to wait and see.”
Looking forward, the organization is working with a new piece of technology called Arrivalist. It’s something that Offutt said the Colorado Tourism Office is also using to track the number of visitors.
“It’s grabbing people’s phone information. It’s a random sampler, so there are no privacy issues. But we’re putting pixels in our online ads, and we’re seeing that when people actually arrive in the region,” Offut said. “This gives us a great indication of [whether or not] these people were exposed to Colorado Springs and our campaigns. It gives us some really great data.”Data that this organization says will aid their ongoing mission to promote tourism for the area.”
“So it’s really about educating and inspiring people about what they can see and do here,” she finished.
