Year: 2019
Market size: $10.8 billion
When out-of-staters think outdoor recreation in Colorado, the first thing that may come to mind is skiing or snowboarding. Not surprising, considering Colorado is home to 30 ski resorts, including the world-renowned Aspen, Vail, and Telluride resorts to name just a few. But the recreational opportunities in this state go beyond these two winter sports. Today’s market size shows total revenues for water-related recreation in Colorado in 2019. Revenues include fuel, food, admission fees, lodging, and clothing and equipment used for the activities such as rods, reels, hiking boots, and trekking sticks.
In this context, water-related recreation involves all recreational activities near waterways within Colorado’s nine river basins. It’s estimated that 6.7 million residents and non-residents participated in at least one form of recreation along a waterway in 2019. The Colorado Basin attracted the most recreation participants at 2.7 million, followed by the South Platte Basin (2.3 million), the Metro Area (1.9 million), the Arkansas Basin (1.6 million), and the Gunnison Basin (974,300). The Metro Area, Denver being the largest city located there, led the way in participation frequency with 28% of all days spent recreating along the water.
What activity was the most popular? Trail sports with 2.7 million participants. Camping followed with 1.98 million participants, then picnicking/relaxing (1.79 million), water sports (1.64 million), and wildlife-watching (1.24 million). Snowsports ranked 7th with just over 1.1 million participants. In terms of days spent recreating, wildlife-watching ranked the highest, followed by trail sports and water sports.
Mountains, forests, high plains, rivers, plateaus, and canyons. Colorado has a variety of terrain on which to experience a multitude of recreational opportunities. In 2019, water-related recreation in the state supported 131,000 jobs, $6.3 billion in salaries and wages, and contributed $2.7 billion in tax revenue.
Sources: Economic Contributions of Water-Related Outdoor Recreation in Colorado, Business for Water Stewardship, June 2020 available online here; “Map of Colorado Ski Resorts,” SkiCentral available online here; “Watershed Reports,” Colorado River Watch available online here; “Maroon Bells,” Aspen Chamber Resort Association available online here.Image source: Chaileefung0, “maroon-bells-mountain-lake-aspen-1640925,” Pixabay, September 3, 2016 available online here.