High Gas Prices Cause Lower Tourism Numbers Than Last Year
By Trevor Phipps
Across Colorado, 2025 saw tourism kind of flatten out. The state did break a record last year with 96.8 million travelers spending $29.2 billion. But the increase from the 2024 numbers was low for the second year in a row.
Then once 2026 made its way to the calendar, things started to get worse. A dry, snow-less winter caused an issue for skiing, snowboarding and other winter sports that require high snow levels.
After a slow winter for tourism, everyone hoped that things would get better once summer came around. But then the conflict in Iran started to make gas prices surge at a historic rate.
Once the summer season struck the state, travelers were experiencing high gas prices along with high prices of pretty much everything else. The high gas prices tend to change travel plans.
In addition to high costs of travelling, dry conditions also put a hamper on the 2026 summer tourist season. Low water levels forced a decrease in several water-related activities across the state. Many most likely avoided travelling to Colorado in the middle of the summer due to the high number of wildfires raging across the state.
According to the director of the Colorado Tourism Office, Tim Wolfe Colorado has been losing tourists to other states in the western part of the country for the last several years. “We are competing in the West both domestically and internationally for these travelers, and we have lost share of those travelers for the last four years straight,” Wolfe told the Colorado Sun.
High costs in Colorado compared to neighboring states could be one of the causes. According to Google, the average price of a hotel room in Colorado ranges from $220 to $302 per night across all property types (from standard highway motels to high-end luxury resorts). The national average hovers around $150 to $160 per night.
Teller County Saw High Traffic Levels Throughout the Summer
Locally, the Ute Pass Region has seemed to basically follow statewide trends. According to the President of the Greater Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce Debbie Miller, the region has seen lower tourism numbers when it comes to lodging and other businesses.
She said that she has heard from several merchants in the area, that they have seen people change what they do during the summer due to high gas prices. This year, traffic levels seemed to stay about the same as years in the past even though money spent at local businesses is down compared to 2025.
“We have seen a lot of vehicles come through town, but we know a lot of people are going to the National Forest,” Miller said. “It’s an affordable way for a family to have a getaway. We know the cost of gas has impacted what people do. It has impacted if they camp or they stay at a hotel. So we have seen that kind of impact this year.”
But Miller said that the area is not unique. Tourism numbers in Colorado Springs and across Colorado have all seen similar impacts.
Miller also speculated that since the state was in the national news for having a large number of forest fires, some travelers may have scrapped their plans to come to Colorado. Miller said that being on a Stage 2 burn ban for most of the summer (when other neighboring counties had looser burn restrictions) also impacted local tourism numbers.
“Even those who want to come and camp, they want to be able to have a fire,” Miller said. “So, they’ve chosen somewhere that had a little more moisture than we have had.”
Local Business Hope Leaf Peeping and Holiday Events Will Help Tourism Numbers
Now that summer has officially come to an end, the peak tourism season hasn’t necessarily ended. In fact, the Ute Pass Region as steadily grown as a popular spot for the changing fall colors and the holiday season. (See related article)
“I know there is a desire for people to come here for ‘leaf peeping,’” Miller said. “Again with the lack of water, we’re not quite sure what that leaf peeping season looks like. If you travel throughout Teller County right now, you’ll see pockets of really cool colors, but then you will see pockets of where they have already turned brown.”
Then once the leaves fall off as Old Man Winter makes his approach, local tourism opportunities shift focus to holiday-themed events. Many enjoy travelling to mountain towns during the late fall and early winter seasons to experience a real life snow globe that puts them in the Christmas spirit.
“One of the things Woodland park does really well (as do other communities), they do a lot of holiday promotion,” Miller said. “You’ve got the Christmas Parade, the Holiday Home Tour, and the events going on at Charis Bible College. So, there are lots of things to pull people up here into December.”
Overall, Miller said that the slow tourism season was not completely devastating for the region. She said she hopes for high moisture levels this winter that will help improve tourism for the winter season and next summer.
