Lake County tourism panel seeks Colorado grant, expands marketing and visitor surveys to boost off‑peak lodging

A staff member reporting for Lake County's tourism panel said the panel will pursue a Colorado Tourism Office grant, expand marketing channels, and run resident, business and visitor sentiment surveys in 2026 to help raise off‑peak lodging demand and support local businesses.

The plan combines short‑term actions — a new website, regular social posts and coordinated packages with lodging and restaurants — with longer‑term data work to measure impacts. "We are going to go after a grant through the Colorado tourism office to do this," the staff member said, citing a plan to buy roughly 100 hours of consultant time to run a visitor survey and analyze lookalike audiences on platforms such as Meta.

Why it matters: Lake County relies on seasonal visitation and lodging tax revenue. The tourism panel framed the strategy around a stated goal of lifting off‑peak visitation 3 percent; the panel reported a 1.6 percent increase in off‑peak visitation in 2025 and said it does not expect that trend to reverse. The panel also presented web and engagement metrics it said demonstrate growing…