Visit Fort Collins

Why now?

• September 2026: published its 2026-2027 Partnership & Marketing Package.¹⁰
• July 2026: CNN Travel ranked Fort Collins No. 5 on its list of America’s Best Towns to Visit in 2026.²² The same month, Visit Fort Collins built a landing page for PBR Bulls & Beats at Colorado State University (10-12 July).²¹
• January 2026: City Council held its 2026 retreat at the Visit Fort Collins welcome center.³⁸
• December 2025: Council approved the Tourism Improvement District’s 2026 plan and budget. Lead Generation rises from $53,868 to $99,000, Destination Development falls from $195,816 to $109,360, and a new $64,920 Opportunity Fund appears. The Local Champions Program and Software Subscriptions lines have no 2026 amount.³⁶
• 2026 plan: the TID lists “AI-driven bookings and decision making” as a trend and plans search and SEO work “along with AI training”.³⁶
• The marketing team named in the 2023 agency RFP was Katy Schneider, Laura Smith and Abby Davidson. Laura Smith is not on the current staff page.⁵²

Is there money?

• Revenue was $3,470,245 in 2024, against $2,403,281 in 2023 and $1,826,808 in 2022. Both 2023 and 2024 ended with a deficit: -$47,894 and -$66,040.¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶
• In 2024, $1,792,125 came from city lodging tax and $1,229,600 from the Tourism Improvement District. In 2023 the TID paid $607,736.¹⁴¹⁵
• Advertising and promotion was $940,777 in 2024, against $206,088 in 2023 (plus a separate $171,356 promotions line), $282,759 in 2022 and $250,628 in 2021.¹⁴¹⁵⁴⁵
• Revenue tripled from $1,087,033 in 2021. The TID paid nothing in 2021, $367,231 in 2022, $607,736 in 2023 and $1,229,600 in 2024; city lodging tax went from $717,071 to $1,792,125 over the same years. Each accounts for about half the growth.⁴⁵¹⁴¹⁵
• The TID’s 2026 budget is $1,791,784 against $1,847,494 of expected fee revenue. Its largest lines are Advertising $371,000, Personnel $295,953 and Visitor Services $188,481.³⁶
• Each spring Council passes on lodging tax collected above projection: $167,517 (2022 collections), $392,125 (2023), $296,957 (2024) and $19,952 (2025).^33323130
• The city lodging tax is 3%, split 70% to Visit Fort Collins and 30% to Fort Fund (2021). The TID adds a 3% assessment on lodging.⁷³⁶
• Media budget outside the TID plan: not published.

Who decides?

Runs marketing

• Katy Schneider, CDME, Vice President of Marketing²
• Austin Hannon, Digital Marketing Manager²
• Abby Davidson, M.T.M., Partnership Manager; contact for partnerships and visitors guide ads²¹⁰

Leads the bureau

• Cynthia Eichler, CDME, President and CEO²
• Erik Barstow, Vice President of Sales²
• Board president Mike Hooker, with 10 voting members (2024 990)¹⁴
• The TID board is six hoteliers, including Carl Pratt (The Elizabeth) and Casey Kittel (The Hilton Fort Collins), who also sit on the bureau’s board.³⁶¹⁴

Titles from the staff page, the partner package and the 990. Contact details are on their staff page.

Who do they work with?

• Marketing: MMGY Global, $371,128 for marketing on the 2024 990.¹⁴ MMGY also led the 2023 place brand (“In Fort Collins, open spaces inspire open minds”).⁵²⁸ The 2023 RFP for an agency of record anticipated up to $250,000; no award was announced.⁵ The site’s Tag Manager carries Adform tags labelled “MMGY_Fort Collins Leisure FY25” (retargeting, engagements, inquiries and the Check Rates page), which points to MMGY as the current leisure media agency.⁴⁴
• Website: Simpleview, $244,838 on the 2024 990 and $101,825 in 2023. The site was relaunched in 2024 and also uses Simpleview BookDirect, AudioEye and Snapsea.^14153527
• Research: RRC Associates, for the 2023/24 economic impact and visitor study. STR for hotel data.³⁵⁵
• Sales data: Cvent Destinations Intelligence (2026 plan); PlayEasy for sports leads (2025 plan).³⁶³⁷
• Visitors guide: 2026 guide hosted on Issuu under RM Publishing. Website ads are sold through Destination Travel Network.²⁹¹⁰
• Construction: Elder Construction ($422,274), Rockfan Entertainment ($141,198) and Beck Total Office Interiors ($154,148) on the 2024 990.¹⁴
• Ad tracking (through Google Tag Manager, GTM-TMF7XF9): Sojern (three pixels), The Trade Desk, Microsoft Clarity, Qualaroo, and Meta, LinkedIn and Bing tags, plus two unidentified trackers (arttrk.com, with lead and purchase actions on /hotels/, and pixel.zprk.io).⁴⁴
• Visitor measurement vendors (Arrivalist, Zartico, Datafy, Placer.ai): not in the site’s tags or the TID plans.⁴⁴³⁶³⁷

When do they buy?

• The fiscal year ends 31 December.¹⁴
• The TID board holds a public hearing in August and must file its plan and budget by 30 September. Council approves it in November or December. In 2025 the hearing was 7 August, board adoption 26 August and Council approval 16 December; in 2024 the board adopted on 27 August.³⁶³⁷
• Council appropriates the lodging tax true-up each March or April.^30313233
• Visit Fort Collins presented to Council work sessions in May 2023 and May 2025.³⁴³⁵
• The last agency RFP was issued 28 April 2023, with responses due 7 June and a planned contract start in July 2023. It asked for concepts that “can run/evolve over a 2-3-year period” and set no contract term: “BEGIN CONTRACT: Week of July 18th”, for “up to $250,000 for this project”.⁵
• The TID’s current term runs to 31 December 2031.³⁶
• Board meeting calendar and minutes: not published.

What they’re running

• Fort Collins Welcome Center: opened 1 August 2024 in Old Town Square, “a Welcome Center by day and a Community Hub by night”. It had 6,400+ guests and 104 events in 2025 to May, and 22K visits and 247 events in the year to August 2025.¹⁹³⁵³⁶
• Group sales, 2024: 146 leads, 58 groups booked for 22,704 room nights, and 51 groups arrived at an average rate of $179.³⁵
• Sports: My Hockey returned in February 2025 with 941 room nights, against 424 the February before. The 2025 plan moved sports groups to performance-based support.³⁵³⁷
• Paid media, 2024: 21.6M impressions across eight markets, from Denver and Colorado Springs to Omaha and Albuquerque.³⁵
• Meeting incentives: cash back of up to $1,000, $3,500 or $5,000 by room-night block, or a free welcome reception.²⁵
• Regional itineraries: the NoCo Holiday Light Trail and the NoCo Creative Road Trip across five towns, with sponsored placements.²³²⁴
• Forever Fort Collins: a local-champion meetings program launched in 2024.³⁷

Worth knowing

• RRC’s 2023/24 study puts total economic impact at $360.0M (2019/20: $285.0M) and the visitor Net Promoter Score at 67 (2019/20: 26).³⁵
• The annual report is behind the login-only partner portal.⁹
• Partnership dues are $525 or $395 a year.¹⁰
• The staff page’s meta description still names Autumn Schempp, Director of Business Development, who is not in the page body.²
• The city lodging tax agreement itself was not found in 254 Council agendas from 2023 to 2026.⁴⁰

Footnotes

1. 10

   2026-2027 Partnership & Marketing Package, Visit Fort Collins, 2026-09-14, pp. 2-4.

   2026-2027 Partnership & Marketing Package (4-page PDF, linked from /partners/join/)

   Visit Fort Collins · published 2026-09-14 (PDF creation date)

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2. 22

   “Fort Collins named one of America’s best towns to visit in 2026”, Axios Denver, 2026-07-01.

   Fort Collins named one of America's best towns to visit in 2026

   Axios Denver · published 2026-07-01

   ↩
3. 21

   PBR Bulls & Beats at Colorado State University, Visit Fort Collins, 2026.

   PBR Bulls & Beats at Colorado State University (event landing page)

   Visit Fort Collins · read 2026-10-12

   ↩
4. 38

   City Council retreat agenda, 2026-01-24 and 2026-01-31.

   City Council retreat agenda, 2026-01-24 and 2026-01-31

   City of Fort Collins · published 2026-01

   ↩
5. 36

   Resolution 2025-111, TID 2026 Annual Plan and Budget, Council packet, 2025-12-16, pp. 260-297.

   City Council regular meeting packet, 2025-12-16, item 16 Resolution 2025-111 (TID 2026 Annual Plan, Budget, three directors; packet pp. 260-297)

   City of Fort Collins / Fort Collins Tourism Improvement District · published 2025-12

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6. 5

   Request for Proposals: Brand Implementation and Marketing Strategy, Visit Fort Collins, 2023-04-26, pp. 1-7.

   Request for Proposals: Developing a Brand Implementation and Marketing Strategy for Visit Fort Collins (9-page PDF, linked from /agency-rfp/)

   Visit Fort Collins · published 2023-04-26

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7. 2

   Staff Directory, Visit Fort Collins, read 2026-10-12.

   Staff Directory

   Visit Fort Collins · read 2026-10-12

   ↩
8. 14

   Form 990 for 2024, Fort Collins Convention and Visitors Bureau Inc, Parts I, VII, VIII, IX.

   Form 990, tax period ending 2024-12-31 (IRS e-file XML, object 202532549349301303)

   Fort Collins Convention and Visitors Bureau Inc · filed 2025

   ↩
9. 15

   Form 990 for 2023, Fort Collins Convention and Visitors Bureau Inc, Parts I, VII, VIII, IX.

   Form 990, tax period ending 2023-12-31 (IRS e-file XML, object 202403109349302860)

   Fort Collins Convention and Visitors Bureau Inc · filed 2024

   ↩
10. 16

    Nonprofit Explorer record, EIN 84-1055690, ProPublica, updated 2026-09-23.

    Nonprofit Explorer organization record, EIN 84-1055690 (API summary of filings 2014-2023)

    ProPublica · updated 2026-09-23

    ↩
11. 45

    IRS Form 990 e-file XML for 2021 and 2022 (Part VIII line 2, Part IX line 12), via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, EIN 84-1055690, read 2026-10-15.

    IRS Form 990 e-file XML, tax years 2021 and 2022

    Fort Collins Convention and Visitors Bureau (EIN 84-1055690) · filed 2022-11 and 2023-11

    ↩
12. 33

    City Council agendas, 2023-03-21 and 2023-04-04, Ordinance No. 037, 2023.

    City Council regular meeting agendas, 2023-03-21 and 2023-04-04 (Ordinance No. 037, 2023, lodging tax appropriation)

    City of Fort Collins · published 2023-03

    ↩
13. 32

    City Council agendas, 2024-03-19 and 2024-04-02, Ordinance No. 042, 2024.

    City Council regular meeting agendas, 2024-03-19 and 2024-04-02 (Ordinance No. 042, 2024, lodging tax appropriation)

    City of Fort Collins · published 2024-03

    ↩
14. 31

    City Council agendas, 2025-04-15 and 2025-05-06, Ordinance No. 071, 2025.

    City Council regular meeting agendas, 2025-04-15 and 2025-05-06 (Ordinance No. 071, 2025, lodging tax appropriation)

    City of Fort Collins · published 2025-04

    ↩
15. 30

    City Council agendas, 2026-04-07 and 2026-04-21, Ordinance No. 034, 2026.

    City Council regular meeting agendas, 2026-04-07 and 2026-04-21 (Ordinance No. 034, 2026, lodging tax appropriation, first and second reading)

    City of Fort Collins · published 2026-04

    ↩
16. 7

    “Fort Collins City Council to consider proposal for new tourism authority”, BizWest, 2021-02-22.

    Fort Collins City Council to consider proposal for new tourism authority

    BizWest · published 2021-02-22

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17. 28

    Visit Fort Collins Brand Promise, read 2026-10-12.

    Visit Fort Collins Brand Promise

    Visit Fort Collins · read 2026-10-12

    ↩
18. 44

    Visit Fort Collins site, Google Tag Manager container GTM-TMF7XF9 (googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id=GTM-TMF7XF9), read 2026-10-15.

    Google Tag Manager container GTM-TMF7XF9 loaded by visitftcollins.com

    Visit Fort Collins · published live

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19. 35

    “Community Report: Visit Fort Collins 2024-2025 Update”, Council work session packet, 2025-05-13, pp. 4-15.

    City Council work session packet, 2025-05-13, item 1 "Community Report: Visit Fort Collins 2024-2025 Update" (11 slides, packet pp. 4-15)

    City of Fort Collins / Visit Fort Collins · published 2025-05

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20. 27

    visitftcollins.com page source, read 2026-10-12.

    Homepage HTML source (vendor scripts and asset hosts)

    Visit Fort Collins · published live

    ↩
21. 37

    Resolution 2024-132, TID 2025 Annual Plan and Budget, Council packet, 2024-11-19, pp. 213-235.

    City Council regular meeting packet, 2024-11-19, item 16 Resolution 2024-132 (TID 2025 Annual Plan and Budget; packet pp. 213-235)

    City of Fort Collins / Fort Collins Tourism Improvement District · published 2024-11

    ↩
22. 29

    Visitors Guide page and 2026 guide on Issuu (RM Publishing), 2026.

    Visitors Guide request page, linking the 2026 guide on Issuu (publisher account "rmparent", RM Publishing, Fort Collins)

    Visit Fort Collins / Issuu · published 2026

    ↩
23. 34

    City Council work session agenda, 2023-05-09.

    City Council work session agenda, 2023-05-09 (item 1: 2022 Visit Fort Collins Annual Report and Update)

    City of Fort Collins · published 2023-05

    ↩
24. 19

    “New Fort Collins Welcome Center”, Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, 2024-08-13.

    New Fort Collins Welcome Center

    Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce · published 2024-08-13

    ↩
25. 25

    Fort Collins Meeting Planner Promotions, Visit Fort Collins, read 2026-10-12.

    Fort Collins Meeting Planner Promotions

    Visit Fort Collins · read 2026-10-12

    ↩
26. 23

    Northern Colorado Holiday Light Trail, Visit Fort Collins, 2025 season.

    Northern Colorado Holiday Light Trail

    Visit Fort Collins · published 2025 season

    ↩
27. 24

    The NoCo Creative Road Trip, Visit Fort Collins, read 2026-10-12.

    The NoCo Creative Road Trip

    Visit Fort Collins · read 2026-10-12

    ↩
28. 9

    Partners, Visit Fort Collins, read 2026-10-12.

    Partners

    Visit Fort Collins · read 2026-10-12

    ↩
29. 40

    City of Fort Collins Agendas/Minutes portal (Municode Meetings), 254 agendas searched, read 2026-10-12.

    Agendas/Minutes portal (Municode Meetings), 254 City Council agendas 2023-01 to 2026-10 searched

    City of Fort Collins · published live

    ↩