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Visit Fort Collins reports higher web traffic, says visitation rebounding
Summary
Visit Fort Collins told the City Council that a website refresh, seasonal digital advertising and new downtown welcome-center programming helped raise visitation and web engagement in 2024; the organization highlighted continued emphasis on shoulder‑season events and youth sports to stabilize hotel demand.
Visit Fort Collins President and CEO Cynthia Eichler told the Fort Collins City Council at a work session that the tourism nonprofit saw increased online engagement and stronger visitation in 2024 following a website relaunch and expanded marketing.
Cynthia Eichler said the organization completed a website refresh in six months and launched a four‑season digital marketing campaign that produced roughly 21.6 million impressions and drew about 217,000 individual visitors to the site. Eichler said engaged users rose roughly 40 percent year over year and that the organization recorded better visitation numbers than in recent years, calling 2024 “the best numbers we’ve seen since 2017.”
The update emphasized tools and programming the organization uses to support local businesses. Eichler highlighted a new downtown welcome center, now about eight to nine months into operation, which she described as a community hub that hosts pop‑up retail, start‑up mixers and a monthly speaker series in partnership with Colorado State University called “RamTalks.” Visit Fort Collins also cited partnerships that translated national press into booking gains for local restaurants and businesses.
Eichler said sales reached or exceeded pre‑pandemic levels and noted that the Tourism Improvement District (TID) fee supports a four‑person sales team (a senior sales manager, a sales manager, a support role and a team support specialist) focused on group and event bookings. She pointed to youth sports — including youth hockey tournaments that filled more than 1,100 rooms in one event and added additional tournaments in 2025 — as a strong shoulder‑season driver for limited‑service hotels concentrated on the Harmony Corridor.
Council members asked about data granularity and metrics. Eichler said Visit Fort Collins has started a contract with a company that will provide more detailed short‑term rental versus hotel tracking next year; she also said the nonprofit monitors lodging tax and TID fee collections as partial barometers.
Eichler described public‑relations wins, including features in Men’s Journal and Forbes that she said translated into new visitor interest and bookings, and she offered anecdotal business feedback, including a quote that Visit Fort Collins delivers approximately $2.57 in bookings for every dollar spent by one local operator. She closed by saying the organization will continue focusing on year‑round programming, shoulder‑season events and partnerships that link visitors to resident experiences.
Council members thanked the presenters and asked for follow‑up details about short‑term rental tracking, the TID‑funded sales program and the welcome center’s community programming.
