One new trend identified in summer and early fall tourism has Breckenridge’s tourism sector proactively working to ensure it continues to stake its claim as an overnight destination. 

For its largest and most reliable visitor demographic, Colorado residents, the Breckenridge Tourism Office reported the town saw a 28% decrease in revenue for overnight bookings year-over-year as of Aug. 18. For out of state visitors, it has seen a 15% decrease in revenue for overnight bookings year-over-year as of Aug. 18. 

While booked nights are down, sales tax is up $1.8 million year to date based on numbers from the end of June, which Breckenridge’s finance department said indicated sales tax was fairly flat in comparison to the prior year. The most recent sales tax data is from June and shows a .31% increase in total net taxable sales year over year. While July’s total net taxable sales haven’t been determined yet, finance department staff members reported at an Aug. 27 meeting it looked as though July’s overall tax collections would be reflective of June’s.

Sales tax slightly increasing or remaining flat throughout the year and booking nights being down has the tourism sector worried of people beginning to view Breckenridge as just a day destination.

Chief executive officer of the Breckenridge Tourism Office, Lucy Kay, said at an Aug. 27 Breckenridge Town Council meeting resort towns across the mountain west are seeing a steady downturn in nights booked for summer visitation and Breckenridge isn’t alone. 

For instance, where Park City had 97,271 summer guest nights booked by Aug. 18, 2022, it had 90,724 summer guest nights booked by Aug. 18, 2023 and 83,118 by Aug. 18, 2024, according to data presented by the Breckenridge Tourism Office. 

Steamboat Springs had 61,527 summer guest nights booked by Aug. 18, 2022, 60,132 summer guest nights booked by Aug. 18, 2023 and 50,601 summer guest nights booked by Aug. 18, 2024, according to data presented by the Breckenridge Tourism Office. 

While other comparable mountain towns saw a steady decline, Kay explained Breckenridge differs because it had strong 2023 summer visitation, so it had “a little farther to fall.”

Breckenridge had 124,840 summer guest nights booked by Aug. 18, 2022 and that jumped to 136,794 summer guest nights booked by Aug. 18, 2023. This year the town had 110,245 summer guest nights booked by Aug. 18.

Breckenridge Tourism Office board member and local restaurant owner Matt Vawter said the recent occupancy downturn “is largely a function of post-(COVID-19 pandemic) spike.” 

Kay has said during previous tourism updates to Breckenridge Town Council the pandemic, particularly the beginning of it, skewed data and made identifying trends over the past five years more difficult. She has noted it made creating a baseline for certain data points tricky. 

Breckenridge Tourism Office largely uses a database called Key Data to quantify the amount of lodging nights booked. Key Data encapsulates much of Breckenridge’s lodging industry, yet not every single short-term rental property’s data for nights booked is captured. Kay said despite this, the tourism office feels like they have enough information to be concerned about visitation being down for the entire year. 

While visitation is down, the data the Breckenridge Tourism has, it said, shows the length of stay hasn’t decreased and people are still visiting for around five days.

The tourism office told the council it set a goal of increasing summer and fall nights booked by 4-5%. and it also plans to revisit its goal of encouraging a balanced year-round tourism economy and how to best carry that out.

From surveying visitors the tourism office found that many shared the same positive sentiments about visiting Breckenridge yet when it came to negative feedback it varied. Many respondents demonstrated they like Breckenridge because of the welcoming nature of the community and the town’s charm. Negative sentiment was a bit all over the place, the tourism office said, with people citing a singular questionable restaurant experience, having trouble parking or being annoyed over things like the gondola not operating at certain times of year.

When it came to surveying residents, the tourism office found 85% supported tourism.