Park County’s July tourism numbers show the trends we’ve all come to expect.
The Park County Travel Council’s released their latest Marketing Director’s Report for the year-to-date in 2020. In addition to the usual collection of publications and other media that have featured Cody in a shining light, it also collected the hard numbers of visitors and income as opposed to years past. July is one of the best months for Cody, Yellowstone, and Wyoming as a whole, and this July has fully felt the damage of the pandemic. The clearest is in lodging tax collections. By the end of June 2019, $822,866.08 has been collected. By the end of June 2020, it was $420,730.40, a 49% decline.
Numbers were almost uniformly down across the board, both for July and the Year To Date, historically. Walk-in visitors at the Cody Visitor Center were down almost 48% for July, and down 58% for the year. Similar declines were seen at the Powell and Meeteetsee Visitor Centers, and the Visitor Center at the Buffalo Bill Dam and Reservoir. July’s attendance at the Cody Nite & Stampede Rodeo was down 44.5%, contributing to a 56% YTD decline. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West’s July attendance was down 36% for the month, 49% for the year.
But its not all doom and gloom, and the positive trends bode well for the future. Yellowstone’s East Gate and Northeast Gates both saw small increases in July 2020. The conversions of the Park County Travel Council website were up over 90% last month. But perhaps most encouraging: Cody vacation guide requests are up nearly 60% in 2020 – in July alone, it was up 104% from last year. Our regular tourist traffic isn’t here this year, but they and several others are already planning to visit in the future.
