Experts Say Summer of 2025 Became a ‘Hit and Miss’ Tourist Season
Trevor Phipps
Nationwide, the country experienced a drop in out-of-town visitors across the board for 2025.
A visible decrease in international visitors, coupled with fears over the impacts of tariffs and new political policies, has caused many areas (like Las Vegas) to see a slump in revenue generated by tourism.
Across Colorado, lodging revenues have been down, and many places have noticed a big drop in international travelers. The Pikes Peak region though has experienced a mini-jackpot when it comes to high traffic for certain events. But the area is missing out on the tourism buck during non-event weekends in the summer and fall.
That’s the main conclusion made by area business operators and local tourism experts regarding the 2025 season.
In previous years, these findings weren’t the case. In Teller County, local events have produced great turnouts on select weekends. At the same time, business operators are disappointed with the overall lack of traffic during the normally busy summer season.
According to the Greater Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce President Debbie Miller, the summer tourist season had its ups, but overall, the area has followed statewide (and even national) trends by seeing a drop in lodging numbers and international visitors.
“Things started out slow on Memorial Weekend, and it continued to stay slow all through June,” Miller said. “We saw an uptick when July hit. And July seemed to be pretty strong. I think in the south part of the county, the festivals that happen in Cripple Creek and Victor seemed to be really strong. Woodland Park’s Fourth of July and the symphony seemed to be very strong as well.”
But then Miller said she noticed another downward pendulum swing. After the busy event season in July, tourism activity seemed to drop off once again, noted the chamber president.
“And then what we saw was that when August hit (at least for some of the festivals locally in Woodland Park), they saw a decrease in attendance,” Miller explained. “Our lodging saw a decrease in attendance this year. And our attractions saw a decrease. We certainly didn’t see international travelers this year at all.”
Miller then reiterated what the county commissioners said during the recent “State of the County Breakfast, which took place in September. The county commissioners and chamber of commerce president agree that this year felt like the area had reverted back to the COVID-19-era of 2020-2021.
“There are a ton of people traffic-wise. You see them come in with their trailers, but they are going to the forest as they did in 2020,” Miller said.
She went on to say that many campers out in the forest have left trash and not kept their campsites pristine. The region recently has seen an uptick in dirty camping sites in the surrounding National Forest, similar to what was noticed during the COVID era.
Overall, Miller said that even though festivals had good turnouts, the tourist season didn’t turn out as robust as what was expected Without having official numbers yet, Miller believes the tourism was down this year compared to the last few years.
Uncertain National Economy Could Be to Blame for Local Tourism Drop
Miller attributed the recent drop in tourism numbers is to trends occurring at the national level. The uncertainty surrounding tariffs and federal budget cuts have affected travel.
In addition, no change in high interest rates has kept spending to a minimum. “I think it has been a ‘wait and see’ situation for a lot of people,” Miller said. “And they were more willing to hold onto their money and not do anything at this point.”
She said the region also suffered due to a nationwide decrease in international travelers. “We have a lot of international visitors that come, and they just didn’t come this year,” Miller said. “That is a component of what does come in and it did hurt us to not see those travelers.”
Early Leaf Season Hits Mega Crowds
Luckily, the fall foliage this season could bring about a boost in tourism. The peak “leaf peeper” season started recently and has generated huge crowds of motorists. The region has definitely seen an uptick in traffic.
And once the leaves fall off, the area most likely will get another tourism surge when the snow starts to fly. Over the past several years, the Teller high country has warped into a top destination for the snowy holiday season. Combined with the Ice Castles attraction and Ice Festival in Cripple Creek, the area should see decent tourism numbers over the next few months.
During the month of October, the local chamber of commerce plans to start reinforcing the reasons why shopping local is vital to the region’s economy. “I think more so than ever this year I hope that people will take a moment when they look at their shopping list and think, ‘what can I get locally?’” Miller said. “Because the owner of that shop is your neighbor. And their kids go to school in our region. So, ensuring our local businesses are successful takes a little effort, I think, on the part of the citizens. I think it will be critical for all of us through the holiday season to be focused on local.”
