The Visit Grand Junction Advisory Board and staff have been diligently working on a Grand Junction Area Tourism Membership program. This allows for tourism businesses outside Grand Junction city limits, within Mesa County, to formalize a partnership with Visit Grand Junction. This provides an opportunity for the business to access Visit GJ marketing to benefit their business directly. Destination Marketing Organizations across the country have similar arrangements with tourism stakeholders outside the taxing district; albeit for a much larger annual membership cost.
On April 20, 2022, Grand Junction City Council approved Resolution 35-22, confirming the ability for Visit GJ to enter into contracts with lodging, restaurants, retail, events, and activity-based businesses outside the City, if the tourism business chooses to partner. This does not affect any tourism entity within the City.
We have set up a Q&A page to answer your questions. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or are interested in partnering. The 2022 annual membership cost, for any tourism business outside of the City of GJ, is $350 (will be prorated for 2022).
We are excited to launch this program because it offers all tourism businesses (in Mesa County) the ability to participate with Visit GJ in a mutually beneficial partnership. Again, this does not affect tourism businesses within the City of GJ - benefits continue as is. It merely provides tourism businesses outside Grand Junction's city limits an opportunity to formally collaborate with Visit GJ. The annual membership provides services that help the business directly, with their own marketing initiatives. There is no requirement to join.
Thank you,
Elizabeth
Director of Visit Grand Junction
ElizabethF@GJcity.org
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Lodging Tax Revenue Report
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February 2022
From the 4.25% lodging tax collections that Visit GJ received (short-term rental lodging tax revenue is collected quarterly), February 2022’s business was a factor of 42.5% higher compared to February 2021 (adjusted for late and missing payments). For a more accurate comparison, February 2022's business was 15.7% higher than February 2020's business (pre-pandemic). Of the Grand Junction lodging properties that reported their metrics to STR, LLC., occupancy for February 2022 was 52.8%, ADR was $86.29, and RevPAR was $45.60. All three metrics were the highest for any February in Grand Junction's lodging history!
Grand Junction experienced an increase in all hotel metrics compared to the previous month of January. February 2022’s business experienced a factor of a 20.0% increase in occupancy, a 5.8% increase in ADR, and a 27.2% increase in RevPAR compared to January 2022.
GJ's hotels continue to do a great job with their yield management strategies! Keep it up, especially as summer and event season approaches. To assist you in this area, check out this awesome article, What Hotel Revenue Management Innovations & Trends Can We Expect in 2022? by Revfine.com. Of course, feel free to reach out to Elizabeth at ElizabethF@GJCity.org for assistance as well.
Click here for the latest sales, use, and lodging tax collection reports from the City of Grand Junction.
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For national metrics, Grand Junction was 7.2% lower than U.S. hotels in average occupancy, 37.2% lower in ADR, and 41.7% lower in RevPAR for February 2022. Keep in mind, similar to the below caveat regarding state comparison, U.S. metrics include major metropolitan areas like NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, etc. Those cities, and hundreds of others, create a dichotomy with regard to the unbalanced comparison of G.J. metrics to U.S. metrics. Regardless, we think it's helpful data, and certainly a goal we can aspire to!
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Compared to the state, Grand Junction was 9.4% lower than Colorado hotels in average occupancy, 54.3% lower in ADR, and 58.5% lower in RevPAR for February 2022. Once again, the high percentage of difference is affected by ski resorts that disproportionately weigh the entire state's occupancy.
*Source: STR, LLC. - REPUBLICATION OR OTHER RE-USE OF STR’s DATA WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF STR IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
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Data: Back to Business Report
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The U.S. Travel Association recently released its Getting Back to Business report highlighting the uneven recovery of the business travel segment and projected recovery times. Notable points from the report include:
- In 2021, domestic business spending remained at just 44 percent of 2019 levels, and group meetings and events are struggling even more, down 70 percent from 2019 levels.
- Domestic leisure travel is fully recovered to 2019 levels, but business travel is less than half of 2019 levels in 2021.
- Both transient business travel (business travelers predominantly on-the-move seeking short and often urgent hotel stays) and group business travel are expected to reach 2019 levels in 2024, but group travel recovery will be slower. While transient business travel spending is projected to reach 81 percent of 2019 levels in 2022, group business spending is projected to reach only 70 percent of 2019 levels in 2022.
Visit Grand Junction continues to study and utilize industry data to adjust marketing strategies and initiatives to compensate for the volatile travel environment.
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Celebrate Colorado! Governor Polis and the State of Colorado are planning a Celebrate Colorado weekend for May 6–8, 2022, aimed to invigorate Coloradans by showcasing a range of free, safe and discounted activities from across the state. If you have any free or low-cost events/activities during this time, please input that information into this form and the state will promote your activity on the Celebrate Colorado website. For any questions, please reach out to Danielle.Oliveto@state.co.us.
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Love'n GJ on Social Media
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Chastity commented
"Beautiful City 😍 😍 😍"
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Heidi said, "Been there and it’s worth the visit"
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Sami Cotten wrote, "Super cool video!!"
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