SOUTHERN COLORADO — The Colorado Tourism Office is now encouraging people to get out of their homes, explore the state, and reactivate our tourism economy.
On Monday, CTO shared that it's launching a new campaign called "When We Explore."
Cathy Ritter, director of CTO, said, "The shutdown of the tourism economy has triggered about a third to half of the unemployment nationally and in Colorado."
Things are improving in Colorado when it comes to refueling tourism, but the impacts from COVID-19 are still staggering.
Peggy Gair, public relations manager for the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park, said, "Most of us are not seeing the numbers that we did last year obviously, so we're hoping that people want to get out and rediscover some of the places in Colorado that maybe they've been bypassing."
CTO's latest campaign hopes to do just that.
Gair said, "It's going to help tremendously."
Ritter said, "By encouraging people to travel again, by restarting our Colorado tourism economy we're restoring business earnings, we're restoring tax revenues."
She shared that CTO is working with industry partners to develop special offers like Colorado Restaurant Bingo.
She said, "It's really explaining to Coloradans that, in a very real way, when they step outside their house they're making a difference and they're perhaps giving somebody their job back when they travel around the state and spend money."
While encouraging people to travel again, CTO is also asking travelers to not only care for Colorado's natural resources, but also, for the people who live in Colorado by following COVID-19 safety guidelines. Part of the "Care for Colorado" campaign is to catch out-of-state travelers at Colorado's welcome centers which will reopen on July 1.
Ritter said, "To entice these out-of-state travelers to stop at our welcome centers we're going to be using geofence marketing messages right at our state border encouraging these travelers to stop by our welcome center and pick up a free Colorado-themed bandana."
Which you can get by providing proof of a future reservation at a Colorado hotel or some sort of lodging in the state.
