Similar to most travel markets in the U.S., Breckenridge is anticipating a dip in summer visitation, yet it won’t have to deal with a drop in a key visitor demographic other U.S. destinations are having to worry about.

Breckenridge Tourism Office president Lucy Kay painted a picture of uncertainty at a summer tourism outlook event on Thursday, April 10, referencing the evolving impacts of events like President Trump’s administration announcing the 90-day pause on tariffs just the day before. 

She said foreign travel to the U.S. currently looks grim, pointing to a projection put out by international firm Tourism Economics demonstrating a drop in visitor expenditures of about $18 billion in 2025. This is causing U.S. airlines to alter their 2025 financial forecasts, like Delta Airlines, which did so Wednesday, April 9. 

While markets more reliant on international travel could feel more significant hits, Breckenridge’s summer visitation has never been dependent on international travelers, Kay said. Still, visitation is likely to be lower than last year.

Due to a data blip, the Breckenridge Tourism Office doesn’t have all the numbers it needs for a summer visitation outlook, but Kay said the office anticipates Breckenridge could be down 5-10%. She stressed this isn’t the final summer outlook and not all the summer bookings have been made yet. She said preliminary data shows Vail summer visitation could be down 6%, Park City’s could be down 1% and Summit County at-large could be down 11.6%.

Kay said one thing to keep on eye on regarding impacts to all U.S. travel markets, including mountain towns, is the exchange rate. 

“The exchange rate right now is the strongest it’s been in 40 years, (which) makes it very expensive for people to come here and makes it very cheap for us to go abroad,” she said. “So some of our domestic travelers may divert to international travelers this year.”

Kay highlighted what she described as a tentative travel prediction that could benefit Breckenridge and Colorado at-large. 

She said travel experts are seeing indicators of a potential “road trip year.” Data shows Breckenridge’s fly-drive visitor market is a fairly even split in terms of how people choose to get here. Kay said much of Breckenridge’s “fly” market is still within driving range, and the tourism office finds people are willing to make that switch if airfare prices are high. 

She said the last major “road trip” year Colorado saw was during the Great Recession in 2008, noting “that saved Colorado” tourism.

Breckenridge Tourism Office senior marketing director John Sellers also presented information on the town’s marketing plan, noting the summer marketing focus is entirely on out-of-state visitors. He said the tourism office is ramping up an ambassador program to highlight the town as an outdoor recreation destination through locals and visitors who have a platform online. 

Audience members, mostly business owners and community members, wondered what data exists that shows how many repeat visitors are coming to Breckenridge. 

Kay said there’s been a fairly consistent rate of 40% repeat visitation over the last couple years.

She clarified while the tourism office’s job primarily entails prospecting and pulling in new visitation, it looks to support lodging companies and business in marketing efforts to encourage repeat visitation.

“We pay a lot of attention to net promoter scores, which is guest propensity to recommend coming back … We are always looking at different things we can do to elevate the service levels,” she said. 

Audience members also had questions about summer attractions, particularly ones for July 4, and the results of a community survey regarding local sentiment on the town’s holiday offerings. The tourism office and elected officials parsed through a handful of different nighttime entertainment options to introduce on the holiday that would turn day visitors into overnight visitors. 

Breckenridge considered introducing a light show for July 4, but officials decided the light show was best suited for the Breckenridge International Festival of Arts. 

Breckenridge Tourism Office director of operations Bill Wishowski said the community survey lacked a solid conclusion. 

He said respondents “couldn’t necessarily communicate their favorability for the (light show) animation because we didn’t tell them exactly what that animation may be,” noting the town kept specific details of the Studio Roosegaarde’s SPARK exhibition it was considering under wraps for awhile. This made for a situation where people didn’t know what kind of “animation” they were being asked about in the survey. 

Wishowski said the community didn’t seem to be in favor of fireworks, either. 

“Understanding that with the fire concerns that we have, having fireworks in Breckenridge during the summertime is not a shift that people were willing to make at this time,” he said.