Market Research & the Colorado Springs CVB

The short answer to the question of do we use research is yes. Unfortunately, the Colorado Springs CVB has have very limited budget derived from a 2% bed tax and a 1% auto rental tax (abnormally low for a city of 600,000 people in comparison to other destinations). We are also highly scrutinized by the community at large for how we spend the money we receive. Any project that is seen as frivolous or unnecessary by the masses tends to end up on the front page of the local newspaper.

Regardless, we normally have a $5000 research budget that we use to conduct informal surveys of our meeting planners (post-event) and of leisure travelers who order a visitor guide during the year. Our yearly visitor guide survey helps us to determine an approximation of how many people convert and actually visit Colorado Springs after ordering a guide. We also ask a series of other questions to get at the usefulness of the publication and how it can be improved. Our meeting planner survey is meant to gauge the success of an event on a variety of dimensions including attendance, satisfaction with host lodging property, type of transportation used to get to Colorado Springs, satisfaction with the overall customer service experience of the CVB and other factors. Since the volume on the meeting planner survey is relatively low, we don't have much statistical significance and we use the results on a case by case basis to better meet the needs of our planners.

We also use part of the $5000 budget on other forms of secondary research. As you know, this really doesn't go very far and we often spend most of the budget on buying a "Pikes Peak Region" subset of a larger study that the Colorado Tourism Office commissions Longwoods International to put together. The information includes trending segments within the state (i.e. heritage travel or ecotourism) as well as the popularity of our top attractions and the number of overnight visitors that visit the region every year broken down by business vs. leisure travelers. The Pikes Peak Region subsection also provides demographic information about our visitors that we wouldn't be able to afford researching on our own. This is important information because it helps us stay ahead of trends in the tourism market.

We also use larger composite research studies done at the state level. The Colorado Tourism Office funds numerous other studies that help highlight the importance of various aspects of tourism. One report conducted by Dean Runyan Associates digs deeply into the economic impact of tourism across the entire state, predefined regions, counties and down to the city level. This report is essential because it helps us to estimate the overall economic impact of tourism to the local economy. Economic impact is extremely important for political reasons. Colorado Springs always tends to be notoriously antitax, even if those paying the taxes are not actually residents.

Dean Runyan Report
Longwood Reports