The Colorado Tourism Office has reported that travellers set an all-time spending record of US$22.3 billion on Colorado vacations in 2018, a 6.7% increase from 2017, significantly above the average spending increase in the USA of 4.1% year-on-year. Australian visitors to the state increased by almost 10% and their spend was up nearly 16% compared to 2017.
International travel topped one million visitors for the first time with a total of 1,049,000, representing an increase of 7.44% year-on-year. This figure includes 57,693 Australians, compared to 52,871 in 2017, an annual growth from this market of 9.12%. In the past decade, the number of Australians visiting Colorado has increased by 70.28%.
International visitors to the state represented Colorado’s highest spending traveller, with the average trip expenditure for Colorado’s top overseas markets (Australia, the UK, France, Germany, China and Japan) at $2,438 per person per trip. Australian spend per trip in 2018 was $3,006 per person, a significant year-on-year increase of 15.85%.
Overnight stays of leisure travellers were up to a record high 19.5 million, a 3 percent increase from 2017.
The number of jobs directly supported by the tourism industry was also at a record high of 174,400, a 1.9% increase year-on-year.
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