Middlebury, VT Tourism Data: Vermont's Billion and What It Means for

Jacob Mishalanie
Aug 16
15 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

Otter Creek Falls in Middlebury, Vermont

Middlebury is a town in Addison County, Vermont, and it is not Woodstock. It is not Stowe, and it is not Burlington. This page is not a visitor-spend workbook for the Champlain Valley. The Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing, working with Tourism Economics, released a 2024 statewide study in December 2025: 16 million visitors spent a record $4.2 billion on goods and services. Visitor spending is about 9 percent of state GDP and supports about 32,000 jobs. That is the state layer, and it is not your occupancy. It is not an Addison County dollar. This pass did not open a county cell for Addison. Leave out unverified one.

AirROI's Middlebury file, updated August 8, 2026, trailing August 2025 through July 2026, is a different scale: 67 active listings, named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31 average annual revenue, a $298 average daily rate, 42.5 percent occupancy, $126 RevPAR, and a named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31 median month. Supply is up 24.1 percent year over year, and revenue is down 21.9 percent. Those are listing metrics on a vendor dashboard, and they are not a slice of $4.2 billion. Do not divide the state spend by 67, and the.market reportholds the file. Therulespost holds the tax stack. This page keeps the two tourism scales apart.

A brief that still quotes guestfavorites.com at named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31 a year on 72 listings is a stale secondary. Use AirROI, and do not midpoint the two. New York and Boston are the named guest origins on the file. Guests are 94.1 percent domestic, and peak revenue month is August. The floor is March, and peak-three is August, October, and September. Soft months include February, March, and July, and lead time is about 77 days. Average stay is about 4.3 nights. None of those lines is $4.2 billion, and none of them is permission to treat Vermont's lodging $1.5 billion as Middlebury income.

$4.2 billion is a 2024 statewide study

The Agency of Commerce and Community Development press release dated December 11, 2025 is the dated desk for the figure hosts want to paste. The Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing announced the Tourism Economics study of 2024 visitation. Sixteen million people visited Vermont in 2024 and spent a record $4.2 billion on goods and services. Both visitation and spending showed a modest increase from 2023. Visitor spending represents about 9 percent of Vermont GDP, against a 2023 national state average the release put at 3 percent. Cite the study, the year, and the desk. Do not upgrade a state press release into a Crest & Cove T12, a county audit, or a lender exhibit.

The same release printed a statewide breakout of direct visitor spending: $1.5 billion for lodging, $876 million for food and beverages, $680 million in retail, $678 million for gasoline and other transportation, and $462 million for recreation and entertainment. State and local taxes attributed to visitors were $293.5 million. The visitor economy directly supports about 32,000 jobs, and those are Vermont cells. They are not Addison County cells, and they are not 67 AirROI listings. A host who writes “Middlebury is a $4.2 billion market” invented a geography the Department did not publish for this town.

Keep the year on the line. The study is a 2024 visitor year, released in December 2025. AirROI’s file is a trailing August 2025 through July 2026 snapshot updated August 8, 2026. Those clocks overlap and they are not the same clock. A host who pastes “16 million / $4.2 billion” into a 2026 calendar as if it were August occupancy is teaching a guest a state-official year as if it were a Saturday. Date the study, and date the dashboard, and leave the Addison County dollar blank, and the.investmentpost is the house. Thefinancepost is the note. Neither one is a Montpelier paraphrase.

Sixteen million visitors are not 67 listings

Sixteen million is a statewide visitor count for 2024. Sixty-seven is an active-listing count on a vendor page updated August 8, 2026. Both numbers can be true on the same morning. A day tripper who walks Otter Creek Falls and drives back to New York is inside 16 million and is not inside your 4.3-night AirROI stay. A guest who sleeps in a campus-edge house is also inside 16 million. The study did not split Addison County out of that mix for this draft. This page will not invent the split. If you Keep “16 million people booked Champlain Valley cabins,” you invented a product Tourism Economics did not publish for this town.

AirROI’s 67 is a thin file next to a destination ski town and a thin file next to a state press release. Entire-home share is 80.6 percent, and houses are 50.7 percent. One-beds are 25.4 percent, and three-or-more-bed listings are 35.8 percent. Superhost share is 68.7 percent, and professionally managed share is 1.5 percent. Guest Favorite share is 79.1 percent, and rating prints 4.93. That is a small, mostly independent field sitting next to a 16-million-person state story. The.DIYpost is the craft gap. The tourism article is not that table.

Do not use 16 million to argue the town is undersupplied, and do not use 67 to argue Vermont tourism is a college village. The study count is visitors in Vermont as Tourism Economics described them. The vendor count is listings on a dashboard. A 700-acre resort on the lake and an one-bedroom off the green can both sit inside the state story, and only one of them sits inside the 67. Caption the desk. Do not pick the number that makes the pro forma prettier. Thecomparepost is the Vermont-markets trade. This page is the refusal to treat a state visitor count as a Middlebury occupancy series.

Leave out unverified an Addison County dollar

This pass did not open an Addison County visitor-spend cell. The December 11, 2025 release said the report examined county-specific numbers and named other counties in print: Chittenden at 24.5 percent of statewide visitor spending, well over $1 billion; Lamoille, Rutland, and Windsor each over 10 percent; Caledonia at $109 million; Bennington at almost $300 million. Addison was not among the named cells in the material this draft opened. Leave out unverified the missing county. Do not back into one by dividing $4.2 billion by fourteen counties. Do not assign Chittenden’s billion to Otter Creek because both touch Lake Champlain. Those multiplications are not research.

Visit Addison County and local itinerary desks are not a spend study unless a study was opened. This pass did not open one. AirROI’s named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31 average annual revenue is listing revenue on a vendor file, not visitor spending in the county. The named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31 median month is a typical-property month, not a tourism-director receipt. Top-quartile months print named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31. Top 10 percent months print named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31 or more. The bottom quartile prints named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31. Those spreads describe hosts, not day trippers buying lunch on Main Street. If you need a dollar, use the file and say it is the file. If you need a state story, use $4.2 billion and say it is Vermont, 2024.

A lender who asks “what do visitors spend in Middlebury?” gets an honest answer: this draft did not open that study. Thefinancepost is the house as a house. Thestartuppost is a tax stack with no invented furniture package. Missing spend is not permission to invent spend, and missing fee is not permission to invent fee. The same rule applies both ways. A memo that fills either blank with a guess is a memo you should not sign. Ask for the study, the year, and the desk before you paste a local dollar anyone handed you.

Lodging $1.5 billion is not your ADR

Vermont lodging spend in the 2024 study is $1.5 billion. AirROI’s Middlebury ADR is $298, and occupancy is 42.5 percent. RevPAR is $126, and median occupancy is about 44 percent. Median nightly rate is about $240, and average stay is about 4.3 nights. Guests book about 77 days out, and those are listing metrics. A lodging-spend cell is a statewide category inside a Tourism Economics workbook. They do not convert. A day tripper in the 16 million can spend nothing on lodging and still count. A 4.3-night couple at $298 is a booked stay and whatever the file says they paid. Do not advertise 16 million visitors as if they were 16 million booked nights at $298.

Food and beverage at $876 million, retail at $680 million, gasoline and transport at $678 million, and recreation and entertainment at $462 million are the other statewide category lines. They are demand context for why a college town, a lake, and a train still draw people to Vermont. They are not occupancy, and they are not your cleaning fee. Cleaning on the file averages $111 with a $91 median, and 76.1 percent of listings charge one. That is an operating number on a 4.3-night stay, not a slice of $876 million in restaurant checks.how-to-marketpost is the first frame. The state breakout is the backdrop you do not get to spend.

A 30-night minimum sits on 28.4 percent of the AirROI file. That is a different product from an one-night minimum (37.3 percent) or a two-night minimum (28.4 percent). Theremotepost is the desk month. Do not advertise a Saturday as a month because lodging is $1.5 billion in Vermont. Do not advertise a month as foliage because recreation is $462 million. Origins on the file are 94.1 percent domestic, with New York and Boston named. That is a drive-and-rail shed, not a fly-in resort, and it is not a Saturday door-to-door. Keep the labels. An ADR is a nightly rate on booked nights. A visitor-spend category is a statewide line.

named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31 is listing revenue, not visitor spend

AirROI’s average annual revenue is named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31. The median month is named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31. Those numbers live on the same snapshot and they describe different middles. An average is pulled by the top of the file. Top-quartile months print named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31. Top 10 percent months print named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31 or more. The bottom quartile prints named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31. If you send a guest, a buyer, or a lender only named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31, you sent the prettier middle. If you send only named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31, you still have to say it is a month, not a year, and that August is not March. Twelve times named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31 is a back-of-envelope some hosts will do. This draft will not treat that multiplication as a T12.

Seasonality on the file is not flat, and peak revenue month is August. Lowest is March, and peak-three is August, October, and September. Soft band is February, March, and July. A host who hears “Vermont tourism is $4.2 billion” and prices every month as foliage will miss the file’s March floor and will over-trust July, which sits in the soft band even though the lake is open.calendarpost is that math. Theoff-seasonpost is stick season and mud season, and lead time is about 77 days. An August Saturday is sold in May. Empty March nights are how people discover they bought the average and live in the bottom quartile.

Supply is up 24.1 percent year over year, and revenue is down 21.9 percent. That pair is the opposite of a boom story, and it sits on the same page as named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31. A state visitor record in 2024 does not repeal a 67-listing revenue decline on a 2025-2026 trailing file. Professionally managed share is 1.5 percent, and superhost share is 68.7 percent. Entire-home share is 80.6 percent, and none of those lines is $4.2 billion.agencypost is whether a fee works on this file. The tourism sentence is not that fee, and cite the average and the median. Date the file August 8, 2026, and say n equals 67. Then stop soldering state spend onto listing revenue.

August peak versus a tourism-director year

AirROI’s seasonality file is a revenue year: peak month August, floor March, peak-three August / October / September, soft February / March / July. That is not a tourism-director speech about how the state feels in foliage. It is a vendor revenue clock on 67 listings. College weekends punch holes in that clock. Fall Family Weekend on middlebury.edu, opened for this draft, prints October 30 through November 1, 2026. Reunion 2026 already ran; the academic calendar printed June 4 through 7 and the alumni desk said thanks. Commencement 2026 printed May 24, and recheck those dates the week you price. The calendar is subject to change. This draft will not lock next year’s Reunion as if it were a statute.

Those two clocks can both be useful, and they are not the same clock. A host who prices only “summer” because the lake is open will miss October, which is inside the file’s peak-three, and will over-trust July, which is inside the soft band. A host who ignores the state study will still feel August the way residents feel it.shoulderpost is the dead windows. Thepersonaspost splits college families, lake families, Nordic skiers, and rail travelers. Visitor spend does not split them for you. Wedding-adjacent and reunion blocks book earlier than a midweek mud-season desk. Leave out unverified a booking curve.

Lead time is about 77 days, and an October Family Weekend is sold in August. A May commencement weekend is sold in March, which is already the file’s weakest revenue month for everyone else. A listing that promises “leaf season all fall” will be wrong twice: once on the trees, once on the calendar. Photograph the month you are actually selling. Recheck Snow Bowl and Rikert the week you Keep the guest book; Rikert’s own desk, opened this pass, said closed for the season, with 2026-27 passes back on September 1.visitor guideholds the pins. This page holds the refusal to let a statewide summer erase a March file.

Tax collected is not a slice of $293.5 million

The study attributed $293.5 million in state and local taxes to visitors in 2024. That is a statewide tax-impact line. It is not your remittance. It is not a reason to skip the Department of Taxes. tax.vermont.gov/business/industry/short-term-rentals, opened for this draft, is the live stack: 9 percent state rooms tax, plus a 3 percent short-term rental surcharge under Act 183 of 2024 for rents collected on or after August 1, 2024, plus a local option rooms tax of up to 1 percent if the municipality has enacted one. Leave out unverified that Middlebury, Vergennes, or Bristol currently has or lacks the 1 percent. Confirm the address on the Department’s live local-option table the morning you invoice.

Platforms collect rooms tax, local option if applicable, and the surcharge on platform bookings. If you only rent on a platform and receive no other rents, the Department says you do not need your own rooms-tax account. Independent and off-platform rents require free registration. AirROI’s “regulation = Low” badge is not the statute. A 2023 Middlebury Selectboard memo existed. No town STR ordinance, cap, or dedicated permit was opened for Middlebury, Vergennes, or Bristol this pass. That is not “no rules.” The state tax stack still applies. Do not treat $293.5 million as proof the town already collected your Saturday.rulespost is the compliance page.

A cheap week is still a taxable occupancy if someone books it. Act 48 language in this cluster still treats stays of 30 consecutive days or fewer as the rooms-tax product; ask a preparer before you assume a 31-night laptop stay drops the stack. Theremotepost is that hedge. Do not send a lender $293.5 million as if it were coverage. Do not send a guest a tax lecture instead of a published market year. What you owe the Department is the stack that applies to the address. What you owe the file is the average and the median, labeled. What you owe the study is the year and the geography.

What a host can actually cite to a guest

You can cite the dated state line: 16 million visitors and $4.2 billion in spending in 2024, about 9 percent of GDP, about 32,000 jobs, per VDTM / Tourism Economics as released December 11, 2025. You can cite the statewide breakout: lodging $1.5 billion, food and beverage $876 million, retail $680 million, gasoline and transport $678 million, recreation and entertainment $462 million, state and local taxes $293.5 million. You can cite AirROI, updated August 8, 2026: 67 listings, $298 ADR, 42.5 percent occupancy, named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31 average annual, named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31 median month, August peak, March floor. You cannot cite an Addison County visitor-spend dollar this pass did not open.

You can cite the pins if you recheck them the week you Keep. Otter Creek Falls and downtown Middlebury. Vergennes downtown, the falls, and the 1897 City Hall Opera House at 120 Main Street. Basin Harbor and Button Bay on the lake. Snow Bowl and Rikert as winter desks you open the week of arrival. Bartlett Falls and Lincoln Gap as Bristol-edge captions, with Lincoln’s own site printing the Gap open as of May 14, 2026 and a tentative winter close of October 15, 2026. Amtrak at Middlebury and at Ferrisburgh-Vergennes since July 29, 2022. Leave out unverified a 2026 timetable. Thevisitor guideis written to keep those desks from collapsing into “Vermont getaway.”.

You cannot send a lender 16 million visitors as income. You cannot send a guest a closed hill because your copy said “ski week nearby.” You cannot treat 67 listings as 16 million people. You cannot treat AirROI’s Low badge as law. You cannot treat guestfavorites.com’s named-town AirROI figures as of 2026-07-31 / 72 listings as a second official middle. What you owe the guest is the house, the published market year, the quiet hours, and the live rule.startuppost is whether you should be hosting here at all.Basin Harborpost is the water version. This page is the tourism sentence with the county dollar left blank on purpose. Cite the study, and cite the file, and leave the invented T12 off the guest book.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many visitors does Vermont get, and what do they spend?

The Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing, with Tourism Economics, put 2024 at 16 million visitors and $4.2 billion in spending, a figure released December 11, 2025. Visitor spending is about 9 percent of state GDP and supports about 32,000 jobs statewide. It's a statewide figure, not an Addison County or Middlebury dollar amount.

How much do visitors spend specifically in Middlebury or Addison County?

This is a genuine data gap: the December 2025 state study named county-level spending shares for several counties, Chittenden at 24.5 percent of statewide spending, Lamoille, Rutland, and Windsor each over 10 percent, Caledonia at $109 million, Bennington near $300 million, but Addison County was not among the counties named with its own figure in that release. Rather than estimate one, this post leaves that number blank.

Are Vermont's 16 million statewide visitors the same as Middlebury's active listings?

No, they're different scales entirely. Sixteen million is a 2024 statewide visitor count that includes day trippers who never book a night anywhere. AirROI's file, updated August 8, 2026, counts 67 active Middlebury listings on a trailing August 2025 through July 2026 window. Both numbers can be true on the same day; they shouldn't be blended into one figure.

What is the statewide visitor-spending breakdown by category?

The December 2025 release printed lodging at $1.5 billion, food and beverage at $876 million, retail at $680 million, gasoline and transportation at $678 million, recreation and entertainment at $462 million, and $293.5 million in state and local taxes attributed to visitors, all 2024 statewide totals.

Do statewide visitor-spending dollars tell me what my listing's ADR should be?

No. AirROI's Middlebury file separately prints a $298 average daily rate, 42.5 percent occupancy, and $126 RevPAR, with an average stay of about 4.3 nights, as of its August 8, 2026 update. The statewide lodging category ($1.5 billion) is a different, non-comparable scale, it isn't a per-listing number and shouldn't be divided to estimate one.

When is peak season for a Middlebury short-term rental?

AirROI's file shows August as the peak revenue month, with October and September rounding out the peak-three, and a floor in March. Soft months are February, March, and July. That's a listing-revenue seasonality pattern, distinct from the state tourism study's single annual 2024 total, and it should be read separately from it.

Is Middlebury's short-term rental supply growing or shrinking, and what's happening to revenue?

Supply is up 24.1 percent year-over-year on AirROI's file, while revenue is down 21.9 percent over the same period, the opposite pattern of a boom. A record statewide visitor year in 2024 doesn't override a listing-level revenue decline showing up on the 2025-2026 trailing file.

Is AirROI's regulation badge the same as Vermont's actual tax rule?

No. AirROI's "Low" regulation label is not the statute. The live tax requirement, per tax.vermont.gov, is 9 percent state rooms tax, plus a 3 percent short-term rental surcharge on rents collected on or after August 1, 2024 under Act 183, plus up to 1 percent local option tax where a town has adopted it.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Vermont's $4.2 billion visitor-spending figure is a 2024 statewide study, and Middlebury's own AirROI file covers just 67 listings on a trailing-year snapshot — blending the two numbers cites a stat that doesn't actually describe this town.

We help independent hosts keep statewide tourism figures and their own listing's trailing revenue on separate lines, instead of using a $4.2 billion state number to describe a 67-listing Middlebury market.

Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502.