Even as opinion stands divided on the economic and social gains on legalising cannabis, cannabis advocates are pointing to the gains made in the tourism sector by Colorado as a case study for all countries thinking of liberalizing cannabis laws.

According to a report commissioned by the Colorado Tourism Office, half of all the tourists visiting Colorado are influenced by the liberal cannabis laws. More than 20 percent of visitors also attest that Colorado's laws were "extremely influential."

Danny Schaefer who runs My420Tours hosts more than 200 guests per week told "The Denver Post" that the Colorado cannabis industry has created the ambience similar to the wine country in California, reports tourism magazine Civilized Life. Colorado embraced cannabis with liberal laws in 2014 and is emerging as the Napa Valley and Sonoma County of cannabis, he added.

Tourists surge

Though Colorado has not compiled the final tourism numbers for 2015, available indicators show that it has set an all-time record and welcomed 71.3 million visitors who spent US $18.6 -billion (AU$26 billion) and represented a 7.4 percent increase over 2013, and translated into US$215 (AU$296) in taxes for every resident of Colorado. These Colarado results are important for Canada as it is getting ready to legalise marijuana nationwide.

Message for Canada

The Tourism Industry Association of Canada already got a grievance that Canada is facing a travel deficit internationally. Its Annual Report 2015 said Canadians are responsible for generating 2.7 percent of all international tourism dollars, but only 1.5 percent of the same pool is being spent within Canada.

Canada’s legalization of cannabis can make a change and be a remedy to boost tourism numbers. It could become a significant market advantage in terms of gaining market share and rebalancing of its perceived tourism deficit. American travelers are now drawn more to Canada as the falling value of Canada's currency is attracting them in bigger numbers unlike the past years. Canada’s weak loonie offers more cost efficiency in terms of cheaper lodging, meals, and the legalisation of weed will be the icing of the cake.

Colarado laws legalized sale of recreational marijuana in Colorado in January 2014, and the survey by Colorado Tourism Office offers more insights, reports Tourism Review.

CTO Survey

According to Lydia Cheng, Asia Pacific market manager for the Colorado Tourism Office, the latest Strategic Marketing and Research Insights (SMARI) survey on Colorado visitors had a major question to the respondents, whether the legalisation of marijuana usage did influence their decision to visit Colorado. To that, 48 percent said it was somewhat influential. But the answer was vague and looked unclear whether it influenced them positively or negatively. Cheng said that makes it unsafe to state that tourists visited Colarada lured by the opportunity to enjoy legal pot.

For each season, Cheng said, Colorado Tourism Office hires SMARI to quantify the ad awareness, ad effectiveness and incremental travel generated by CTO’s ad campaign.

Under the federal law, the sale, possession and use of marijuana are still illegal. Thanks to the central law, Colorado state officials have refrained from promoting marijuana because there are regulations that restrict marijuana pot businesses being advertised beyond the shores of Colorado.

(The article was updated on Dec 18 with a statement of the Asia Pacific market manager of CTO)

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