BOULDER, Colo. — In 2023, 80,088 people spent time in the City of Boulder for the annual BOLDERBoulder race. More than 40,000 people registered for the race with 35,007 finishing it, making it the largest number of participants since 2019.
Along with meeting a participant milestone, last year the race also created a substantial economic impact on the city.
Visit Boulder predicted the race brought in an estimated $18.8 million in direct and indirect impact to the city.
Emiliano Lake-Herrera, the director of visitor experience and community partnerships with Visit Boulder, told Denver7 this race typically kicks off the city's busy summer season.
"In May, we have graduation and a third of our population leaves after that. So we greatly need this event to happen," Lake-Herrera said.
According to Visit Boulder, its report indicated $3.9 million was spent on overnight accommodations. There were more than 20,000 overnight stays in the Boulder area for the race.
$3.3 million was spent at Boulder area restaurants with $2.7 million attributed to retail spending, Visit Boulder added.
"This also does bring people into into restaurants and hotels and it's like I said it's the kickoff to summer. So summer is our key season that helps us throughout the rest of the year," Lake-Herrera said.
Boulder Chamber of Commerce CEO John Tayer told Denver7 the city is adding to a strong fall, which he credited Coach Prime for driving economic activity during the football season.
"The difference, I would say between Coach Prime which is always having every weekend of football, exciting, dynamic and here, we get one full weekend where we welcome in nearly 50,000 people to their our community for a great exercise and trip around our community, showing off the athleticism but just the great quality of life that we have in our community," Tayer said.
This year's BOLDERBoulder will be held on Monday, May 27.
