COHVCO – Economic Contribution of Off-Highway Vechicle Recreation in CO

July, 2009

Subject: Report created by the Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition on the Economic Contribution of Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation in Colorado

Introduction:

Colorado offers unique opportunities for motorized recreation throughout much of the State. This is mainly due to the vast amount of appropriate terrain for off-road motorized recreation. As such, the sport and industry of motorized recreation has enjoyed an increase in popularity in Colorado for both residents and non-residents. The Louis Berger Group, Inc. (Berger) evaluated the economic contribution of motorized recreation throughout Colorado for the 2007-08 season1. The results are summarized in this report.

Much of the analysis presented here was based on a previous study completed by Hazen and Sawyer in 2001 titled Economic Contribution of Off-Highway Vehicle Use in Colorado.2 The Hazen and Sawyer study included a household survey that collected valuable information on where and when motorized, enthusiasts utilize their vehicles for recreation, average expenditures associated with recreational trips, and annual expenditures associated with operating and maintaining vehicles. The data and information on expenditures collected in that study was adjusted for inflation and used in combination with current data on the number of households that participate in motorized recreation in the State to estimate the total economic contribution of the sport in Colorado.

This report is organized as follows. Section 2.0 describes the approach used by Berger to estimate the economic contribution of motorized recreation during the 2007-08 season. Section 3.0 summarizes the estimated number of resident and non-resident households that participate in motorized recreation. Section 4.0 provides the estimated expenditures made by OHV enthusiasts while using and maintaining their recreational vehicles. Section 5.0 summarizes the overall economic contribution of motorized recreation, and Section 6.0 provides a regional analysis.