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DRAFT Market Study <br />Tourist Visitation <br />Lake Nighthorse <br />In addition to local and regional users, tourism will generate use at Lake Nighthorse. Any <br />visitors originating from outside the 100 -mile LNH reach are tourists. Tourism requires a <br />separate methodological track throughout this analysis. <br />The Durango Tourism Office estimates that there are roughly 750,000 room - nights (1 person, 1 <br />room, 1 night) annually in the La Plata County areas. The Tourism Office estimates that an <br />additional 250,000 annual day -trip visits augment the annual visitation to roughly 1 million <br />visitor -days. As a point of comparison, San Juan Public Lands 6estimates that 1.9 million people <br />annually visit U.S. Forest Service lands while 660,000 visit BLM lands within the San Juan Public <br />Lands boundary. Given that La Plata County accounts for most of the tourist activity in the <br />region, the magnitudes of these two estimates of total tourist activity appear to agree with one <br />another. <br />Figure 7- La Plata County Visitor -Day Estimate <br />Estimated annual visitor -days 2007 1,000,000 <br />Estimated annual room - nights 750,000 <br />Low estimate of lodging and private campground nightly capacity 2009 (people) 6,000 <br />Durango Mountain Resort skier -days 2007 -2008 270,000 <br />Train Ridership 2008 144,687 <br />Source: Durango Tourism Office, Four Corners Quarterly <br />Because a portion of trips to the area will not be motivated by recreation, it is necessary to <br />isolate only those trips that could impact visitation to the lake. According to the report <br />Colorado Travel Year 2008, approximately 85% of all visits to Colorado are leisure trips. <br />Applying this rate to <br />the estimated total La <br />150,000 Plata County visitor - <br />days yields a total of <br />850,000 tourism <br />leisure days. This is <br />â– Total Leisure Days the market population <br />that will be used later <br />IN Business /visit in this report to <br />Family Days calculate potential <br />tourist user -days at <br />Lake Nighthorse. <br />850,000 <br />Figure 8- Purpose of <br />Tourist Days <br />5 La Plata County 2009 Comprehensive Plan, Community Profile <br />6 San Juan Public Lands 2007Annual Report <br />Colorado Travel Year 2008, Longwoods International, Conducted for the Colorado Tourism Office <br />10 <br />