If you’ve traveled into the mountains from the Front Range during a weekend, it’s hard not to notice just how many people are also making the trip. From both in and out-of-state, crowds of people are making the most of the summer by visiting our beautiful mountain communities and enjoying Colorado’s spectacular landscapes. Tourism helps drive Colorado’s economy, and libraries in tourist hotspots see the effects as well. Historically, at Library Research Service (LRS), we’ve categorized these libraries located in areas impacted by tourism as Resort Libraries. Recently, we collaborated with these libraries to redefine this designation and update the list of libraries included, renaming them Tourism Community Libraries (TCLs). In this post we’ll outline how these changes came to be. But first, let’s share why this designation exists to begin with and why you may (or may not) want to use it when working with the Public Library Annual Report (PLAR) data.
Why the Distinction?
The Tourism Community Library designation exists in part to help libraries make meaningful comparisons with their peer libraries by removing outliers. Peer libraries are libraries with enough similarities that there is value in measuring one against the other. You may already have an idea of which libraries are your peers. Maybe they serve similar communities nearby, have a similar governing system, and/or reach a similar number of people. Peer comparisons can be incredibly useful for gauging how well a library is serving its communities and learning from other libraries. There is no single right or wrong way to determine which libraries are your peers. The Tourism Community Library designation is merely a tool that LRS provides to help libraries identify their peers and avoid outliers that may drastically skew the data, because not all comparisons are helpful. Tourism Community Libraries, for example, tend to have more funding and higher expenditures per capita than similarly sized libraries located in areas with less tourist traffic. So, just as comparing your everyday routine to a friend’s gorgeous vacation photos isn’t helpful, comparing a library located in a tourist hotspot to one that is not, without taking their locations into account, may not result in a fair analysis.
On the LRS site, we often present the PLAR data by legal service area (LSA) population groupings because this can be a helpful way to make peer comparisons. If you choose to use the groupings on this page, it is important to note that libraries designated as Tourism Community Libraries (called Resort Libraries prior to 2024) are listed in their own category and not included within the LSA population categories where they would otherwise fit. This means that the averages and totals listed in each LSA population category only take into account libraries within that LSA population that are not designated as Tourism Community Libraries. Smaller libraries are particularly susceptible to the way Tourism Community Libraries can skew totals and averages in their LSA population groupings. Being aware that Tourism Community Libraries are separated out of these groups is important, so anyone working with this data can consciously make the call to include or not include these libraries in their analysis. In order to make this call, however, one also needs to understand what makes a Tourism Community Library.
Defining Tourism Community Libraries
So what exactly is a Tourism Community Library? A while ago we asked ourselves this same question, and it led us down a winding road ending at new criteria for libraries in this category. Although the list of libraries included in the previous Resort Libraries categorization was updated annually, the only measure used to determine which libraries to include each year was the percentage of the population working in the tourism industry. This same single measure had been used since 1996! Although the tourism industry workforce is indeed larger in tourist communities, we knew there were additional factors that could help us create a more accurate list. The challenge was identifying and deciding on which new factors to use as criteria. Interestingly, a standard set of criteria for tourism communities in Colorado does not already exist, so we could not work off of any existing frameworks to create our own.
To embark on this endeavor, LRS facilitated discussions with staff at libraries previously included in this designation to brainstorm what measurable criteria might distinguish a tourist community. Some of the criteria considered included:
- The percentage of the employed population holding summer work travel visas
- The percentage of vacant homes which are unoccupied due to seasonal use
- A library’s expenditures per capita
- The percentage of vacant homes in an area available for rent
- The percentage of non-resident borrowers
- Travel spending in an area (as determined by The Economic Impact of Travel report)
- The impact of COVID-19 travel restrictions
- Nearby attractions listed by the tourism office such as national parks
After thorough investigation and several discussions, some of these criteria were ruled out for varying reasons. For example, the number of nearby attractions listed in a brochure from Colorado’s Tourism Office was too arbitrary to base selections off of, and data from Colorado’s popular mountain destinations did not actually show more COVID-19 impacts than other communities. Eventually, a group consensus was reached to use the current measure of workforce percentage in the tourism industry along with the first three measures listed above. Libraries would need to meet a certain threshold for at least two of these four measures (changed to three out of four after 2024) in order to make the list of Tourism Community Libraries.
When calculating the 2025 list of TCL’s, a new issue arose: Summer Work Travel Visa statistics by county were no longer available. We decided instead to use Direct Travel Spending numbers from The Economic Impact of Travel Report from the Colorado Tourism Office. We then calculated travel spending per capita and arrived at our newest criteria. Because tourism is on the rise state-wide, we also increased the number of measures libraries need to meet the threshold for to three out of four in order to make sure the list of libraries did not become too expansive, therefore losing meaning.
The full list of criteria, the thresholds set for each, the updated list of Tourism Community Libraries, and a couple helpful maps can all be found on this LRS webpage.
Additional Considerations
The goal of this entire process was to better define Tourism Community Libraries and to create a list that more accurately organizes peer libraries together and represents the many popular and unique areas across our state. Adding these additional criteria and new qualifying requirements caused the number of libraries in this grouping to double from 2023 (12 libraries included) to 2024 (24 libraries included), but the list has now dropped back down a bit to 19 libraries in 2025.
The data used for two of the criteria (percentage of vacant homes which are unoccupied due to seasonal use and percentage of the working population employed in the tourism industry) is census level data collected at the county level which has its limitations. One exception was made for Estes Valley Public Library District, which was kept on this list in spite of not meeting two of the four criteria. The criteria did not work for Estes Valley Public Library District because this library falls within Larimer County, and Larimer County’s census data does not reflect a tourist community. We aimed to set a clear definition of Tourism Community Libraries, but the team’s working knowledge of tourism in Colorado and the dynamic, collaborative process used allowed people to share their own opinions and make these logical exceptions when necessary.
Ultimately, we decided to pivot away from the name “Resort Libraries” to “Tourism Community Libraries” instead to prevent these libraries from being attributed only to places with ski resorts. Each year the data used to determine whether a library meets these updated criteria will be revisited, so this list will likely evolve over time. This year’s updates to this grouping will help all libraries make strong peer comparisons if they would like to take Tourism Community Libraries into consideration.
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