Visit Fort Collins

Why now?

• September 2026: published its 2026-2027 Partnership & Marketing Package.¹
• July 2026: CNN Travel ranked Fort Collins No. 5 on its list of America’s Best Towns to Visit in 2026.² The same month, Visit Fort Collins built a landing page for PBR Bulls & Beats at Colorado State University (10-12 July).³
• January 2026: City Council held its 2026 retreat at the Visit Fort Collins welcome center.⁴
• 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.⁵
• 2026 plan: the TID lists “AI-driven bookings and decision making” as a trend and plans search and SEO work “along with AI training”.⁵
• 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.⁶⁷

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 -$66,040.⁸⁹¹⁰
• In 2024, $1,792,125 came from city lodging tax and $1,229,600 from the Tourism Improvement District. In 2023 the TID paid $607,736.⁸⁹
• 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 2021.⁸⁹¹¹
• 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.¹¹⁸⁹
• 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 $188,481.⁵
• Each spring Council passes on lodging tax collected above projection: $167,517 (2022 collections), $392,125 (2023), $296,957 (2024) and $19,952 (2025).^12131415
• 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.¹⁶⁵
• Media budget outside the TID plan: not published.

Who decides?

Runs marketing

• Katy Schneider, CDME, Vice President of Marketing⁷
• Austin Hannon, Digital Marketing Manager⁷
• Abby Davidson, M.T.M., Partnership Manager; contact for partnerships and visitors guide ads⁷¹

Leads the bureau

• Cynthia Eichler, CDME, President and CEO⁷
• Erik Barstow, Vice President of Sales⁷
• Board president Mike Hooker, with 10 voting members (2024 990)⁸
• 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.⁵⁸

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 990.⁸ MMGY also led the 2023 place brand (“In Fort Collins, open spaces inspire open minds”).⁶¹⁷ The 2023 RFP for an agency of record anticipated up to $250,000; no award was announced.⁶ 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.¹⁸
• 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.⁸⁹¹⁹²⁰
• Research: RRC Associates, for the 2023/24 economic impact and visitor study. STR for hotel data.¹⁹⁶
• Sales data: Cvent Destinations Intelligence (2026 plan); PlayEasy for sports leads (2025 plan).⁵²¹
• Visitors guide: 2026 guide hosted on Issuu under RM Publishing. Website ads are sold through Destination Travel Network.²²¹
• Construction: Elder Construction ($422,274), Rockfan Entertainment ($141,198) and Beck Total Office Interiors ($154,148) on the 2024 990.⁸
• 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).¹⁸
• Visitor measurement vendors (Arrivalist, Zartico, Datafy, Placer.ai): not in the site’s tags or the TID plans.¹⁸⁵²¹

When do they buy?

• The fiscal year ends 31 December.⁸
• 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.⁵²¹
• Council appropriates the lodging tax true-up each March or April.^15141312
• Visit Fort Collins presented to Council work sessions in May 2023 and May 2025.²³¹⁹
• 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”.⁶
• The TID’s current term runs to 31 December 2031.⁵
• 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 2025.²⁴¹⁹⁵
• Group sales, 2024: 146 leads, 58 groups booked for 22,704 room nights, and 51 groups arrived at an average rate of $179.¹⁹
• 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.¹⁹²¹
• Paid media, 2024: 21.6M impressions across eight markets, from Denver and Colorado Springs to Omaha and Albuquerque.¹⁹
• 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.²⁶²⁷
• Forever Fort Collins: a local-champion meetings program launched in 2024.²¹

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).¹⁹
• The annual report is behind the login-only partner portal.²⁸
• Partnership dues are $525 or $395 a year.¹
• The staff page’s meta description still names Autumn Schempp, Director of Business Development, who is not in the page body.⁷
• The city lodging tax agreement itself was not found in 254 Council agendas from 2023 to 2026.²⁹

Footnotes

1. 2026-2027 Partnership & Marketing Package, Visit Fort Collins, 2026-09-14, pp. 2-4. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

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

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

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

5. Resolution 2025-111, TID 2026 Annual Plan and Budget, Council packet, 2025-12-16, pp. 260-297. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

6. Request for Proposals: Brand Implementation and Marketing Strategy, Visit Fort Collins, 2023-04-26, pp. 1-7. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

7. Staff Directory, Visit Fort Collins, read 2026-10-12. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

8. Form 990 for 2024, Fort Collins Convention and Visitors Bureau Inc, Parts I, VII, VIII, IX. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

9. Form 990 for 2023, Fort Collins Convention and Visitors Bureau Inc, Parts I, VII, VIII, IX. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

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

11. 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. ↩ ↩²

12. City Council agendas, 2023-03-21 and 2023-04-04, Ordinance No. 037, 2023. ↩ ↩²

13. City Council agendas, 2024-03-19 and 2024-04-02, Ordinance No. 042, 2024. ↩ ↩²

14. City Council agendas, 2025-04-15 and 2025-05-06, Ordinance No. 071, 2025. ↩ ↩²

15. City Council agendas, 2026-04-07 and 2026-04-21, Ordinance No. 034, 2026. ↩ ↩²

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

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

18. Visit Fort Collins site, Google Tag Manager container GTM-TMF7XF9 (googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id=GTM-TMF7XF9), read 2026-10-15. ↩ ↩² ↩³

19. “Community Report: Visit Fort Collins 2024-2025 Update”, Council work session packet, 2025-05-13, pp. 4-15. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

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

21. Resolution 2024-132, TID 2025 Annual Plan and Budget, Council packet, 2024-11-19, pp. 213-235. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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