Retail & Hospitality

Retail Sales

What: Retail sales are an indicator of consumer spending. As of 2019, retail sales are reported as of the location of the purchaser, which would include any online purchases shipped to locations in Larimer and Weld Counties.  

Why: Consumer spending accounts for about 70% of the US economy; thus, retail sales can be an important indicator of the general health of an economy. In addition, local governments derive much of their tax revenue from retail sales. In this way, retail sales are an indicator of the health of the public sector.  

Retail Sales by Select Industry

What: Retail sales are an indicator of consumer spending as well as an indicator of business revenues. In this capacity, retail sales can reflect the health of businesses.   

Why: These three industries were selected because many consumer-oriented, locally-owned businesses are in these sectors.  

Community Mobility

What:  Google’s community mobility tracks aggregated, anonymized data to provide insights into movement trends. It shows the percent difference from the January 2020 baseline.

Why:  Policies and individual responses related to the Pandemic greatly influence people’s movement and spending. People’s visits to retail and recreation destinations and to workplaces provide insights into the flow of customers and workers. 

Hotel Occupancy

What: The hotel occupancy shows the percent of open hotel rooms that are occupied.  

Why: The hotel occupancy rate is an indicator of the performance of the hospitality sector. It shows capacity utilization and reflects the visitation level to these destinations. The hospitality sector, a major employment sector, also generates visitor spending which supports other sectors. 

Revenue per Available Room

What: Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) is another key performance indicator of the hospitality industry that is calculated by multiplying the average daily room rate by the occupancy rate.   

Why:  RevPAR is an indicator of profitability in the hospitality sector.  

Visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park

What: Monthly recreation visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park is the number of individuals that enter the park for recreational purposes.   

Why:  The number of monthly recreation visitors is an indicator of the health of the tourism sector in the region as it captures the visitors to one of the largest tourist destinations in Northern Colorado.