Sidebar by Ed Quillen
Water Conservancy Districts – April 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine
Comparing the relative economic contributions of agriculture and tourism is sort of like comparing apples to lift tickets.
But there are some numbers available. According to the 1997 U.S.D.A. Census of Agriculture, total agricultural sales in Chaffee County were $5,097,000 — mostly cattle and calves ($2,543,000), hay ($933,000), and nursery and greenhouse items ($1,083,000).
In Chaffee County, there’s a lodging tax of 1.9%, and in 1997 it brought in $166,882, indicating total lodging sales of $8.5 million. According to a study sponsored by the Colorado Tourism Board, lodging gets 26.4¢ of the tourist dollar, so total tourist spending in Chaffee County was about $32 million in 1997.
Thus in Chaffee County, just the lodging spending was considerably more than all agricultural sales ($8.5 million compared to $5 million), and total income from tourism was more than six times as much as income from agriculture.
Comparable numbers are not available for other parts of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District. There are county agricultural statistics, but nothing separate for western Frémont County.
Agriculture in Custer County in 1997 brought in $4.8 million, mostly cattle and calves ($2,645,000) and hay ($1,954,000).
Lodging tax revenue figures are from the Chaffee County Visitors Bureau, and have climbed from $95,101 in 1991 to $205,187 in 2000.
Other tourist spending: 25.3% eating and drinking; 17.8% transportation; 12.9% recreation, 17.6% retail. This is from Colorado Tourism Strategic Marketing Plan 1999/2000, based on 1997 statistics and prepared in January, 1999, for the Colorado Tourism Board and the Colorado Travel and Tourism Authority by Longwoods International, a consulting firm.