Lodging tax collections, a key indicator of  hotel and motel stays, continue to trend upward.

According to the Grand Junction Visitor & Convention Bureau, a total of $72,009 in lodging taxes were collected in March, a 6.9 percent increase over the same month last year. March collections represent hotel and motel stays in February.

For the first quarter of 2016, a total of $202,275 in lodging taxes were collected. That’s an increase of nearly 5.4 percent over the first quarter in 2015.

For all of 2015, about $1.4 million in lodging taxes were collected, an increase of 9.1 percent over 2014.

A total of 93,980 unique visits to the VCB Web site were reported for the first quarter of 2016, down 17.1 percent from the same span last year. Meanwhile, a total of 1,262 people were counted as visiting the Grand Junction Visitor Center in the first quarter of 2016, down 29.3 percent.