Cortez staff members expressed optimism for the city’s economic future given recent financial and tourism reports, noting domestic travel, steady development and spending consistent with the city’s budget as being positive indicators.
“Cautious optimism is probably the play right now,” said Finance Director Randy Bailey during in a Tuesday presentation to City Council. “We have a good budget, we have a good plan, we have great priorities, we're executing.”
The city is on track with its budget and revenue for the first quarter of the fiscal year. Development activity ‒ including remodels, home improvements and building permitting ‒ is also on track, with the city seeing a 6.8% growth rate each year since 2021.
He noted, however, that inflation is up with statistics from the Front Range showing a 1.7% increase over February and March, largely due to increasing energy costs. Capital spending is trending positively as interest rates are stabilizing around 6%, but slowing employment and lower consumer confidence are negating its effects.
“There's some scary stuff out there. Tariffs, tax cuts, inflation, energy costs, war ‒ those types of things,” Bailey said. “So we all need to have in our back pocket what are we going to do if things change dramatically, and I think this leadership team is poised to do just that.”
Mesa Verde Country Executive Director Brian Bartlett covered similar concerns and voiced equal optimism in his presentation to council on the region’s 2025 tourism report, a crucial indicator of Cortez’s economic standing.
“It’s very obvious that we have an economy that’s based on tourism. It benefits from tourism. Our local restaurants, our local establishments could not possibly survive if we did not bring a pipeline of travelers, tourists, visitors into this area,” Bartlett said.
The 2025 report showed visitor spending increased by 8%, but according to Bartlett it’s not entirely on tourists’ own volition.
“Inflation is a driving force behind that. When you see visitor spend numbers that are up by 8% – which they are – it is not all due to the increased activity. It is mostly due to the economic situation that we’re all dealing with right now,” Bartlett said.
As regional tourism recovers, jet fuel prices and global disease outbreaks are halting the recovery of international visitation, which typically yields spending seven times higher per day per visitor than that of domestic travelers, according to Bartlett’s report.
“Our international visitation to the U.S. remains in a gradual, extremely slow and a highly fragile recovery mode. No news there,” Bartlett said.
But Southwestern road trippers are increasingly driving to Cortez, making Mesa Verde National Park a focal point of their itineraries.
“Our strong drive market has visitation from Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Texas,” Bartlett said. “Our domestic leisure travel remains resilient despite the economic pressure.”
Tourism is expected to grow this year. Most lodgers, retailers and other tourism experience businesses saw increases upward of 5% of their expected visitors over Memorial Day weekend.
“Our overall visitation forecast for 2026 into 2027 is plus 1% to possibly plus 4%. Those are pretty positive numbers,” Bartlett said.
Through partnerships with statewide travel offices as well as social influencers and travel writers, Bartlett said Mesa Verde Country aims to benefit Cortez by drawing in visitors to experience the culture, archaeology and heritage unique to the region.
“Many travelers want space, authenticity and lower crowd experiences rather than over-tourism destinations, which is how the city of Cortez has been precisely positioned,” he said. “We’re in a great spot for that right now, and it’s time for us to grow under that aegis.”
avanderveen@the-journal.com
