Booking Platforms, Bus Cancellations and Tourism Revenue Stir County Concern

Garfield County tourism officials told commissioners on Jan. 26 that year-to-date transient room tax revenue was about $50,000 higher than last January, but cautioned that the increase does not necessarily reflect more visitors.

"That does not really equal the people that we're seeing in the county because most of the businesses still have said they're slow," said the tourism representative (Speaker 10), explaining that a chunk of the improvement came from recovered reimbursements and an increase in the tax rate rather than a surge in visitor counts.

Commissioners and tourism partners also described significant bus-tour cancellations. The meeting cited examples of 55-passenger buses whose per-trip cost can be in the thousands when pass-through fees are considered, and attendees said some tour operators are refunding prepaid customers rather than running marginal routes.

Several speakers highlighted an earlier problem where booking.com withheld funds. "They were just, like, holding money and it was not coming back to us," Speaker 10 said. Commissioners discussed whether to pressure the state tax commission to compel marketplace platforms to remit taxes and said Ruby's Inn and other local businesses deserve enforcement of remittance rules.

The commission also noted $55,000 in county tourism grants distributed to towns for events, and discussed strategies to track bus cancellations and quantify their economic impact; county staff were asked to collect numbers and values of canceled tours to present in a future report.