Live From IPW: Colorado's Timothy Wolfe on America 250, Colorado's Big Birthday, and Tourism Done Right

Welcome to a special IPW 2026 series of View From Afar. In this episode, recorded live from the conference floor, Colorado Tourism Office director Timothy Wolfe sits down with Afar deputy editor Michelle Baran to talk about a state that's been ahead of the curve on managing tourism, not just marketing it—and what that's getting them. Tim took the director role in 2021 after a long career in Colorado hospitality, including a run at the legendary Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. He arrived as the state was reckoning with the pandemic-era boom on its mountain towns, and made destination stewardship a centerpiece of the office's work. In 2024, Colorado welcomed 95.4 million visitors, and 2025 is tracking similarly. Tim is also a commissioner for Colorado's 2026 celebration, which marks both America's 250th anniversary and Colorado's 150th year of statehood. In this conversation, Tim and Michelle discuss How Colorado is bucking the international-arrivals decline, with steady Canadian and Mexican visitation and a growing list of direct international flights into Denver The Do Colorado Right framework—a non-finger-wagging approach to destination stewardship that partners with everyone from the Colorado Department of Transportation to individual mountain communities How Colorado's destination stewardship strategic plan, built with thousands of resident inputs across regions, gives even the smallest cities a five-to-ten-year tourism growth roadmap The state's growing rail story: light rail from Denver airport to Union Station, Amtrak, the Winter Park ski train, and rail expansion along the Front Range and to the western slope A 150-stop digital passport program with United Airlines, 150 drone shows scored to John Denver, and the rest of the sesquisemiquincentennial calendar A new dedicated women's soccer stadium in Denver—the first of its kind—and what it means for Colorado as a sports destination heading into the World Cup year Resources The Afar guide to Colorado Stay Connected Subscribe to View From Afar to catch all our IPW 2026 episodes this week. Follow @AfarMedia on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠TikTok⁠ for behind-the-scenes IPW content. ⁠Sign up⁠ for our travel industry newsletter, Afar Advisor. Rate and review the show to help other travel professionals discover these insights. Explore our other podcasts, ⁠Travel Tales⁠ and ⁠Unpacked⁠. This IPW 2026 special series was recorded live. View From Afar is a production of Afar Media and a part of Airwave Media's podcast network (email ⁠advertising@airwavemedia.com⁠ if you would like to advertise on our podcast). The podcast is produced by Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland, with assistance from Michelle Baran and Billie Cohen. Music composition from Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices