David Becher, Director of Community and Travel Research at RRC Associates, recently shared the survey results from an RRC winter 2022-2023 study conducted at the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport (GUC) at a meeting of the Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority.
Notable in the results are that the visitors from last winter who flew into GUC were more affluent than visitors who flew in three years ago (when the last RRC winter research at the airport occurred) and that visitors are responsible for about $30 million in revenues.
Passengers flew in on American, United, and JSX; 76% were visitors, 13% were second homeowners, and about 10% were full-time valley residents. Most of the visitors stayed in Mt. Crested Butte and most of the visitors surveyed lived in Texas.
“JSX certainly stimulated more visits from high-end passengers,” said Becher. “It is a first-class experience that is very convenient to those Texas second homeowners.” GUC airport manager Rick Lamport also noted private jets were down “because some people were using JSX instead of flying their own planes up here.”
“Understanding the demographics and opinions of the passengers and monitoring changes over time allows us to see where we stand and how we are trending vs. our peer set and gives us data to discuss routes, schedules, improvements, etc. with the airlines,” said Scott Truex, Executive Director of Gunnison Valley RTA.
RRC Associates conducts travel and tourism research at mountain airports and locations around the US.