Visit Loveland Annual Report 2022 www.visitlovlelandco.org
Featured in this report
Mission & Vision
About Visit Loveland
Revenues and Expenses
Strategic Plan
Visitors Center Traffic & Sales
Events & Sponsorships
Visit Loveland Destination Events
Marketing
Loveland By the Numbers
PR, Social Media, and Website
Loveland, Colorado
“Tourism…a first date to Economic Development
with marketing campaigns by Destination Marketing Organizations as the matchmaker, and jobs and economic growth as offspring."
We love our partners
Letter from the Visitor Services Director, Cindy Mackin
Turning a setback into a comeback. This is what has been driving Visit Loveland for the last two years. Fighting our way through a pandemic which decimated travel, groups, conferences and consequently our budget, to riding the waves of change in an industry that today still suffers from employment issues. We suffered our own loss of staff in 2022, however, Visit Loveland has continued to persevere keeping our vision and mission, our partners and our community at the forefront of all our decisions.
As leaders for Visit Loveland, we do not take this job lightly. We are charged with leading so much more than marketing. We are the keepers of the culture and as leaders of our destination, we are responsible for developing it, selling it, being the official face and voice of the destination and a champion for change. We are responsible for programs promoting a community as an attractive travel destination and enhancing its public image as a dynamic place to live, work and play. It is through this destination stewardship and brand importance, that we strengthen the community's economic position and vitality which provides opportunity for all the people in the City of Loveland.
2022 began with visitors masked, with a hesitancy to travel and a fear of the unknown. However, pent up travel demand aptly named “revenge travel” coupled with strategic marketing, better economic conditions and a growing resurgence of groups and conferences to the area led the way to a record-breaking year for travel to Loveland. Big wins for the Visit Loveland team included record breaking attendance and PR achieved at both Sweetheart Festival and Winter Wonderlights signature events, the creation and adoption of a new 5-year strategic plan and being awarded over $195,000 in state and federal grants!
2022 yielded record breaking lodging tax collections, record breaking sales and visitors to the visitor's center, triple digit increases on social media and website platforms. Visit Loveland is currently rebuilding an amazingly creative and talented team of experts. We are cautiously optimistic on the future of travel and will continue to work diligently in 2023 with all of our stakeholders to advocate, educate, collaborate and continue to tell our unique brand story to the world. Don’t call it a comeback… But its hard to call it anything else. Here’s to a successful 2023!
Team Visit Loveland
Working Hard to Share the LOVE of Loveland
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CINDY MACKIN Visitors Services Manager
CHARLES LAMMERS Marketing Manager
MAY SORICELLI Technical Specialist
KAREN DINOIA Visitors Center Manager
KELLY JONES Director
Visitors Center Team
Working Hard to Share the LOVE of Loveland with Visitors from all over the world
LANCE NOBLE
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REUBEN WILBUR
TWILA PETER BOB DAMBROSIO
COMMUNITY MARKETING COMMISSION 2022
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James Melena Meredith Siss – Vice Chair
Christine Forster - Chair Zack Andersson
Nathan Thompson
Kathleen George Kurt Albers Mayor Jacki Marsh
Councilor Patrick McFall Kevin Smith
It All Starts With a Visit
“If you build a place where people want to visit, You’ll build a place where people want to live. And, if you build a place where people want to live, You’ll build a place where people have to work.
If you build a place where people want to work, You’ll build a place where business wants to be, You’ll have built a place where people want to visit.”
Mission
Strengthen Loveland’s share of the Colorado travel market by promoting the unique assets of Loveland to increase visitation an maximize the economic impact of travellers.
Vision
To uniquely position Loveland as a premier year round destination and a base camp for domestic and international visitors traveling to Northern Colorado for leisure and business.
Maura Gast
About Loveland Colorado
THE SWEETHEART CITY
Nestled in the foothills of the Rocky mountains, just 45 minutes north of Denver, Loveland is hailed as a Gateway to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. It is the basecamp to all northern Colorado adventures and a haven for outdoor recreation. Loveland is a beautiful place to live, work, and explore. Hailed as one of the best small art towns in America and home to four distinct sculpture gardens, Loveland truly is a work of art. It’s mountainous views, plentiful water and natural areas, diverse shopping and dining options, craft breweries, western experiences and bustling year-round events calendar make Loveland a place with Everything you Love!
8.7 Million Visits
From 1.9 Million
*Visitor’s Per Year
338K Room Night’s +11 5% Over LY
*Visitors live more than 20 miles outside of Loveland
Lodging Tax Collections
Lodging Tax Annual Totals
Since the adoption of the lodging tax in 2009, Loveland has experienced record setting growth in lodging tax collections and has consistently achieved some to the highest occupancy rates in the state of Colorado.
$486,271 $577,672 $668,591 $746,134 $840,272 $858,469 $869,066$879,603 $937,950 $1,010,281 $584,160 $861,068 $1,111,920 $0 $200,000 $400,000 $600,000 $800,000 $1,000,000 $1,200,000 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
COLORADO HOTEL LODGING ASSOCIATION
The Rocky Mountain Lodging Report is sponsored by the Colorado Hotel & Lodging Association and represents a snapshot of those hotels that participate. Here are the monthly and annual occupancy rates, ADR and REVPAR numbers for Loveland
MONTH OCC ADR REVPAR January 48.3% $104.20 $50.37 February 56.5% $107.44 $60.70 March 65.1% $113.49 $73.84 April 62.4% $117.28 $73.18 May 72.9% $134.17 $98.25 June 76.6% $150.64 $115.44 July 75.3% $147.18 $110.82 August 79.2% $141.13 $111.70 September 75.8% $133.90 $101.49 October 71.6% $127.74 $91.41 November 58.5% $109.85 $64.31 December 53.8% $108.53 $58.36 AVERAGE FOR 2022 OCC 66.5% ADR $127.23 REVPAR $84.62
Revenue & Expenditures
VisitLovelandisfundedbytheCityofLoveland’s3%lodgingtax.Thisspecial fundhasveryspecificuses. Thesedollarsareearmarkedformarketingthe destinationandsupportingandcreatingcommunityanddestinationeventsthat driveahealthyeconomyandcreatebusinessopportunity.
Expenditures Revenue $1,685,869 $1,215,212 $576,876 48% $333,785 27% $270,810 22% $33,741 3% Community Marketing Visitor Services Vistors Center Product Improvement/Wayfinding $399,132 24% $1,111,920 66% $174,817 10% Begginning Balance Hotel Collections Visitor Center Sales
2022-2027 STRATEGIC PLAN
ThisstrategicplanwascreatedbytheVisitLovelandStaff&TheCommunityMarketingCommissionwith stakeholder inputanddataprovidedbyDMAI’s(DestinationManagement’sAssociationInternational’)StrategicPlanningTool
5 areas of strategic focus:
FUNDING
Increasing and securing additional funding streams in order to bolster Visit Loveland’s presence in the market was identified by the CMC and stakeholder groups as the number one priority.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT DATA EXPERIENCE
Utilizing research and data to produce data driven strategies in order to attract and retain more high value visitors. Create an advocacy databased toolkit in order to elevate and educate tourism and city partners about their users/audience and customers
COMMUNICATIONS
Creating an official communications plan to strategically inform, educate and elevate Loveland’s brand story to regional, domestic and international visitors, stakeholders, locals and media/influencers.
Encouraging development and attraction of tourismrelated infrastructure to enhance visitor experience and increase visitorrelated Economic Development.
Focusing on visitor’s experience from start to finish. Creating a welcoming atmosphere for visitors, consistent and positive interactions with locals and front-line personnel thus increasing the likelihood of return visitors.
$174,816.60
The VISITOR’S CENTER
SALES
+48% Over 2021
VISITORS
12,43o
+18% Over 2021
Visitors Sales
Over $100,000 in Love Locks sold since 2019
WE LOVE EVENTS
Visit Loveland helped to sponsor 24 different events throughout the year through monetary, in-kind, asset donation, and marketing resources. Visit Loveland LOVES events and it shows through our hard work and collaboration with the community stakeholders and partners.
VISIT LOVELAND
SUPPORTING COMMUNITY
EVENTS & PROGRAMMING
VISIT LOVELAND SPONSORED THE FOLLOWING COMMUNITY AND DESTINATION EVENTS IN 2022
Sweetheart Festival
Loveland Group Wedding
Cherry Pie Festival
Children’s Day
Corn Roast Festival
Pastel’s on 5th
Festival of Lights
Loveland Oktoberfest
Winter Wonderlights
Meals on 4th
4th of July
Sounds of Centerra
Horsetooth International
Film Festival
Honey Festival
Eagles Hockey
Kite Festival
Sculpture in the Park
NCAA Hockey Tournament
Pumpkin Festival
Larimer County Fair & Rodeo
Centerra Wild
Wonderful Weekend
Scarecrow Scavenger
Hunt Sparklers Triple Crown
TPC Ascendant by Blue
PGA Tournament
Sparklers Triple Crown
Lov eland
Oktoberfest
Corn Roast Festival
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Sculpture in the Park
Sweetheart Festival
Attendees Top MSA’s LovelandBoulder Fort Collins Denver Cheyenne Aurora GreeleyLittleton Headliner Bands Little Miss Valentines Pyrotechnics Return of Ice Sculptures Insta Photo walls
5,600
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VISIT LOVELAND
THE PERFECT HOLIDAY DESTINATION
Visit Loveland was proud to produce the 6th year of Winter Wonderlights in 2022. We expanded our holiday destination creation into downtown with the newest installation, Winter Wonderlights downtown in the Foundry plaza. We added Ice sculpting and of course LIVE Reindeer again, community performances a plenty and free photos with Santa. What’s not to LOVE about celebrating the holidays in Loveland?
WE are so grateful for all the amazing partnerships and the strong community support received in 2022!
WINTER WONDERLIGHTS RECAP
Visit Loveland is so thankful for all of the partners, sponsors, community groups and media that helped to produce this annual event. It takes a village to pull it all together but is a labor of LOVE and a driver during the shoulder season.
• 20.5K Visitors
• 1200 lbs of food collected for Foodbank of Larimer County
• 14 Community Group performances
• 59 pieces of media coverage resulting in a PR Value of $1,717,237.
• WW Facebook page grew to 6,981 fans and over the season had 30,875 engagement with 406,075 impressions
• Denver 7 brought up anchors each of the LIVE weekends to host the LIVE nights and featured Winter Wonderlights each week on their 7 things to do around Denver!
VISIT LOVELAND
TRAVEL TRADE & MEDIA FAMS
Working with the Colorado Tourism Office, their PR agency, Visit Loveland hosted over 22 Travel tour operators and media from all over the world including England, Australia, Mexico, France, Germany and Ireland. Domestically we worked with HULA communications to host our first ever 2-day media FAM focused on winter travel! 9 journalists attended this two day event.
MARKETING THE LOVE OF LOVELAND
Our signature marketing piece every year is our annual Loveland Visitors Guide. This year we went BIG by producing our first ever full sized magazine guide. Visit Loveland staff, wrote the copy and designed the template as well as provided MANY of the photos there within. The storytelling and the format may change, but the goal is always the same, to inform, educate, and INSPIRE travel to Loveland. These guides are distributed at all of the Visitors Centers and welcome centers around the state as well as over 600 locations in Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska. 45,000 were printed in 2022.
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BY THE NUMBERS
TOP
TOP 10 FAVORITE PLACES OF VISITORS
VISITS VISITORS FREQUENCY AVERAGE DWELL TIME 1.9 M
TRAVEL JOURNEY 4.64 8.7 M 505 min.
BY THE NUMBERS
VISITORS
VISITORS JOURNEY LOCATION
5 PRIOR & POST VISIT LOCATIONS
TOP VISITOR MSA’S
TOP TEN STATES VISITS
TOP TEN COLORADO CITIES VISITS
VISITORS TO LOVELAND
1 WYOMING 772,307 2 CALIFORNIA 454,493 3 TEXAS 398,671 4 NEBRASKA 253,467 5 ARIZONA 231,309 6 FLORIDA 164,343 7 WASHINGTON 151,663 8 ILLINOIS 150,401 9 KANSAS 132,569 10 UTAH 128,617 1 DENVER CO 713,170 2 AURORA CO 238,099 3 BOULDER CO 209,282 4 LITTLETON CO 199,479 5 COLORADO SPRINGS CO 198,841 6 BRIGHTON CO 166,129 7 ARVADA CO 151,310 8 BROOMFIELD CO 138,882 9 FORT MORGAN CO 85,282 10 GOLDEN CO 76,213
PINPOINT & HEAT MAPS
VISTORS BY DAY OF THE WEEK
VISTORS BY AVERAGE DURATION OF STAY
VISTORS BY TIME OF DAY
VISTORS BY MONTH
BY THE NUMBERS
Public Relations OVERVIEW
Strategic destination marketing, event promotion, media partnerships, and digital advertisement worked together to increase public relations reach and impressions. The below numbers displays the impact of our reach outside of paid advertisement.
IMPRESSIONS
PR VALUE
$68,215,356
2,782,788,434
SOCIAL MEDIA STATISTICS
4.3M IMPRESSIONS 262.9K ENGAGEMENTS 71.6K POST LINK CLICKS 465K IMPRESSSIONS 16K ENGAGEMENTS 16K FOLLOWERS 77.9% 101% 163% 58.9% 60.5% 6.4%
Website Metrics
Coming in 2023: A newly remodelled website and strategic marketing plan!
PAGEVIEWS
905,459 SESSIONS
329,307
• Winter Wonderlights
• Events
• Sweetheart Festival
• July 4 Festival
• Valentine’s Day in Loveland
• Loveland’s Top 10/ Kid’s Top 10
MALE
TOP VISITED PAGES DEMOGRAPHICS FEMALE 60.3% 39.7% 18-24 13% 25-34 23% 35-44 24% 45-54 18% 55-64 13% 65+ 9% AGE
Traveling... It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller
THANK YOU
TO A SUCCESSFUL 2023! CITY COUNCIL, STAFF, & CMC
HERE’S