Breckenridge Reports Strong Summer Revenues

What a summer our mountain towns and communities saw for 2011. The mountain community of Breckenridge, just released a report showing increases in several business sectors including lodging occupancy, average daily rate (ADR) on lodging units and sales tax figures. Summer brought extreme heat in core markets. Combined with events  an increase in revenues resulted in a late-summer demand that drove major occupancy jumps in August (21 percent) and September (12 percent).

Tax revenues saw a similar pattern: taxable lodging revenue grew steadily throughout the summer and showed the biggest increases in August, which produced a 38 percent gain over 2010. Retail and restaurant/bar tax revenues climbed in late summer, with the biggest gains also coming in August.

“The increase in overall summer lodging occupancy, combined with a slight increase in ADR shows that Breckenridge is continuing to fortify its position among mountain destinations,” said GoBreck president John McMahon. “When ADR remains stable and occupancy increases, it allows businesses to remain competitive and maintain staffing levels.”

GoBreck, the destination marketing organization for the Town of Breckenridge produces four signature summer festivals, all of which saw attendance increases. The impact on occupancy was clear during an already-strong Oktoberfest weekend, which saw a 10 percent increase over 2010.

“We added marketing dollars toward enhancements for long-standing events like Oktoberfest,” said McMahon. “And ongoing efforts have increased interest in newer festivals such as Breck Bike Week.”

Thanks to an additional marketing allocation, Breckenridge hosted a Saturday stage finish of the inaugural USA Pro Cycling Challenge, which also proved a big contributor to late summer gains. Occupancy increased 15 to 20 percent over that same weekend in 2010.

Additional growth indicators include a 60 percent increase in visits to GoBreck.com and a five percent increase in Welcome Center visits. Together, those visits created an unexpected demand for visitor guides and materials. The GoBreck organization also launched a mobile application that in the first six weeks saw thousands of downloads, well above expectations. The Breckenridge application has since become available in the Android Market and the iTunes store.

Echoing the overall picture, summer group sales leads were up, nearly double 2010 numbers at the close of September. Destination weddings accounted for the majority of the growth, which follows 2011 increases in the GoBreck sales staff and budget. Some great news!

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