By: Development Research Partners, Inc.

Colorado is an international hub of tourism and outdoor recreation. The state welcomed a record 64.6 million visitors spending $12.5 billion in 2013, touring historic places, enjoying cultural activities and attractions, and discovering eco-tourism and agritourism.

Of Colorado’s 31 million overnight trips in 2013, 1.4 million were ski trips, making Colorado one of the top overnight ski destinations in the nation.

The state is home to 25 ski and snowboard resorts, offering 325 ski lifts, 2,460 trails and 42,680 skiable acres. The 2013-14 ski season set new records for resort visitations, recording 12.6 million ski visits. In addition to winter recreation offerings, Colorado also offers numerous opportunities for hiking, backpacking, camping, biking, rafting, boating, mountain climbing and hunting.

According to the Outdoor Industry Association, at least 65 percent of Colorado residents participate in outdoor recreation each year. The state offers access to more than 50 national parks and wilderness areas, 42 state parks, and the greatest number of 14,000-foot peaks in the nation.

Click here for a closer look at Tourism & Outdoor Recreation statistics

Colorado’s expansive outdoor recreation opportunities attract tourists to all areas of the state. Outdoor enthusiasts will find miles of trails for hiking, biking, and bird watching near the Purgatory River and Comanche National Grassland in
southeast Colorado.

South-central Colorado is home to the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area – one of the nation’s premier whitewater rafting and kayaking destinations – in addition to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, serene hot springs and the famed Royal Gorge Bridge.

Northwest Colorado is home to world-class ski resorts and whitewater rafting, and tourists enjoy Grand Mesa, the Colorado National Monument and Dinosaur National Monument.

Northeast Colorado is home to myriad festivals, museums and rodeos, and its natural history is preserved in the Pawnee National Grassland. The San Juan Mountains form southwest Colorado’s backbone and are a haven for outdoor adventure including skiing, fishing, hiking and rock climbing at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Mesa Verde National Park.

Colorado is also a prime center of arts and culture in the U.S. In 2013, attendance at cultural events exceeded 14 million in Metro Denver with an economic impact of $1.9 billion. Prominent museums such as the Denver Art Museum and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center provide a variety of visual-arts venues. Arts-and-crafts festivals such as The Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver and the Estes Park Fine Arts and Crafts Festival support thousands of visitors each year, and nearly every Colorado town has a summer showcase for local artists.

The extensive Denver Performing Arts Complex is the largest performing arts complex under one roof, and is home to the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Opera Colorado, Denver Center Theatre Company, and the Colorado Ballet.

Colorado also hosts some of the newest sports venues in the nation and a variety of professional sports franchises:

• Denver Broncos (football)
• Colorado Rockies (baseball)
• Colorado Avalanche (hockey)
• Denver Nuggets (basketball)
• Colorado Rapids (soccer)
• Colorado Mammoth and Denver Outlaws (lacrosse)

SOURCES: Beaver Creek Resort, Terrain & Lift Status, www.beavercreek.com/the-mountain/terrain-status.aspx#/TerrainStatus • Breckenridge Resort, Terrain Status, www.breckenridge.com/mountain/terrain-status.aspx#/GA4 • Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, 2015 • Colorado Parks & Wildlife, 2014. https://cpw.state.co.us • Colorado Ski Country USA. Facts, Stats & Skier Visits. www.coloradoski.com/skier-statistics • Development Research Partners, www.developmentresearch.net • Keystone Resort, Terrain Status, www.keystoneresort.com/ski-and-snowboard/terrain-status.aspx#/TerrainStatus • Longwoods International, Colorado Travel Year 2013, May 2014. www.colorado.com/sites/default/master/files/Colorado2013VisitorFinalReportOnline_final.pdf • Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation. www.metrodenver.org • Outdoor Industry Association, The Outdoor Recreation Economy in Colorado. https://outdoorindustry.org/images/ore_reports/CO-colorado-outdoorrecreationeconomy-oia.pdf • Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, “Economic Activity Study of Metro Denver, 2013.” https://scfd.org/p/cbca-eas.html • Vail Resorts, Terrain & Lift Status. www.vail.com/mountain/current-conditions/whats-open-today.

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The group offers more than 3,000 year-round mountain adventures annually ranging from hiking, rock climbing, fly fishing and backpacking to ice climbing, backcountry skiing and snowshoeing. But training to climb a 14er or learning the basics of belaying are not the CMC’s only focus. It also provides youth education programs and continues its original mission to protect wild and public lands through conservation and stewardship programs. The CMC operates a press, hosts film festivals and speaker series and offers adventure travel programs throughout the world.

CMC Marketing Director Rachel Vermeal calls it “a way for people to really get into a relationship with the mountains. We give them the tools and skills, a very hands-on approach.”

The nonprofit CMC, which is a Scientific and Cultural Facilities District Tier II organization, has 12 full-time and 16 part-time employees at its home in the American Mountaineering Center in Golden. The center is a bustling hub of outdoor organizations that include the building’s co-owner American Alpine Club, the American Mountaineering Museum and the American Alpine Library.

The CMC relies on its nearly 770 volunteers to lead trips and teach classes.

“Our teachers have a high level of training in mountaineering, but also have master’s degrees in education-related academics,” says CMC Executive Director Scott Robson.

That’s a vital part of the club’s youth education program in Colorado schools.

The CMC also reaches out to underserved schools that have a high percentage of reduced or free lunches, “in neighborhoods where maybe the students haven’t grown up getting outdoors or to the mountains,” Robson says.

A new feature this year is the Bouldering Bus: a full-sized yellow school bus whose interior has been retrofitted to a climbing gym on wheels – about 40 feet of climbing holes on the walls and ceiling with a big soft pad on the floor to cushion falls.

“What’s cool about it is we can go out to even more schools, take a climbing gym to them and then roll out our science curriculum. We think that’s a unique resource to offer,” Robson says.

Stewardship and land conservation is another important focus. Through its Backcountry Snowsports Initiative, it advocates maintaining quiet, non-motorized backcountry areas at Vail Pass. It advocates for protection of heavily used areas such as Rampart Range and Brown’s Canyon. And CMC volunteers work with federal agencies to repair mountain trails and areas along river valleys.

The CMC press is the club’s business line with 44 titles currently and two more coming out in April. Its “Guide to the Colorado Mountains” has been in continuous publication for 60 years, and guide books on Colorado 14ers; Aspen and Rocky Mountain National Park hikes, children’s hikes and trail runs can be found in most backcountry stores.

Adventure travel program will become a growing area for the club as it expands its offering of trips around the world: climbing trips to Mountain Everest, Mount Kilimanjaro and Australia’s Mount Kosciuszko, cycling tours in Tuscany and Grand Canyon raft trips.

With an eye toward the future, CMC aims to appeal to the state’s younger demographic. The club is working with college outdoor programs and is organizing events such as the Banff Mountain Film Festival at the center’s 350-seat state-of-the art auditorium. It also is expanding its offerings in mountain biking and backcountry skiing.

“The value of a club like the CMC is that you’re doing things with a group of peers who have a deep knowledge of the mountains,” Robson says.