Brief by Central Staff
Recreation – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
We used to think that parks were places to enjoy the scenery or the outdoors or the like. But that was before we looked at a study of the state park system recently conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers, a major accounting and consulting firm.
There we learned that Colorado’s state parks are a product, since it recommends “refining the Colorado State Parks core brand and product” while creating a “greater awareness and recognition of [the] full product range,” and getting increased “visitor acquisition and referral.”
The “2002 Colorado State Parks Market Assessment Study” also had some numbers. The average carload of park visitors has 2.86 people, and will spend $65.71 that day within a 50-mile radius of the park. Overall, they spent $193 million in towns near state parks last year.
Park visitors tend to be married, white, in their late 30s or early 40s, and of above-average income.
State parks in our part of the world include Arkansas Headwaters, Elevenmile, Lake Pueblo, Mueller, San Luis Lakes, and Spinney Mountain. And if you want the 161-page report, you can download it from www.parks.state.co.us — click on “Market Assessment Study” at the bottom of the page, and you’ll get a 2.3-megabyte PDF file that you can read at your leisure.