Denver Tourism

From: Lance (observation)
Date: 13 Aug 2002
Time: 17:11:29
Remote Name: 66.82.48.1

Comments

Tourism is under a lot of stress right now and towns that rely on it for their bread and butter are finding that there are fewer tourists this year. Why? Fear. In the western states there may be fires, kids might get ubducted, and you might get West Nile Virus too. Then there are the sneaky International Terrorists which could strike any big city at any time. Tourism dips in Denver? Yes due to what? Fires, slowing economy, air travel, it is a very expensive place to fly in to and the rental cars are outrageous there. http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2002/08/12/daily15.html?f=et61 . The ski areas have less snow from this past year and they were actually making a lot of snow. Snow season was not too good and the lakes are down and so “Denver Ain’t Your Kind of Town?” Oh really says who. Denver is under stress, but then again so is Orlando, Nashville, and other tourist destinations. Denver is a secondary location for tourists and the whole state of CO got screwed because Terry Barton a Fire Prevention Specialist decides working for the Forest Department started the worst fire in the CO history. Of course it has been just an average last three years in the state; http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/1997/09/01/editorial1.html . Of course they have been vary concerned since before Oct. Denver was always thought to be an opportunistic target for International Terrorism, while I disagree, others were concerned and it was a big topic of conversation at the Oct 2001 Tourist conference as you will recall we discussed back then; http://www.state.co.us/oed/cto/index.html . The more I review these various case studies and also see from my own eyes the problems, http://www.longwoods-intl.com/News-Colorado.htm I have to comment on the labor behind the counters of anything except the pinnacle of resorts. They are not in any hurry to provide any extra level of service, so people are less likely to be inclined to revisit, also the prices in the Mile High City are not exactly friendly either, there are many more places across the country to visit on less of a dime. Where as the economic development association has positive things to say along with many chambers of commerce we visited we are still concerned, here is the positive light on the subject from the Summit Chamber of Commerce which caters primarily to tourists and jet setters, it is their biggest industry by far, other than chateau realty properties and get-a-way homes for the upper and upper middle. http://summitchamber.org/press.cfm . We like this market for a car wash guys franchise and are not concerned about the real estate bubbly that will be deflating in 6-8 months. It just does not impact that type of person as much. In the past few years they have tried a lot to boost tourism in CO and the Governor is rather pro-active in that regard and very good with the media in saying the right things, I liken him to the recent attitude and positive conviction of the PA Governor with the buried miners, who were rescued. The Governor of CO was very good during the big fire their on TV and was hoping to get though the year without taking a hit to tourism. He did as good as could be expected and probably saved the state from a worse condition as Durango and South East Denver subs got hit hard. No Tourism did not stop, but it did not happen for a month and a half when many families are taking summer vacations or thinking about it in the planning stages and therefore checked Denver and most of CO off the list this year, WY is having a good tourism year due to the fact that it can be traveled by car easily. Fuel Prices are now going up too and that means less of a possibility of recovery into what anyone might consider even an average tourism year in Denver or most all of CO. Where are the good moves in CO, well a couple of years back they consolidated the toruism burearus and got everyone basically on the same page; http://www.boulderpublishing.com/news/statewest/14ctour.html and then they tried some very diverse ideas which were later copied by other cities all with reasonable success, which in tourism is a real bitch since public opinion changes quick and you have one good shot out there. http://www.colorado.com/info/media.asp PRACO was sent in to make things happen and give CO a new look and it had worked well, but predicting an International Terrorist event like 9-11 or even the Media Hysteria which took the country to it’s knees and bombarded TV sets day and night for months on end sending them to WalMart and Home Depot for BBQ for the back yard instead of to the airline ticket counter did not help either. Airlines are down big time as you know; http://parthe.net/_cwg0802/00000006.htm Read for yourself. As we believed things would return they did not the first and most devastating lay offs came within three weeks and the announcements from all major airlines was meek, Continental, AMR, UAL, Delta, etc, and lots of aircraft parked in the desert and you think it is worth the total hassle to get frisked and wait in line, limited baggage and checklists of what you can and cannot take? http://www.rohr.com/html/sky0320.pdf Check this site out. Mean while the best promoters of travel, the independent agents are now left trying to peddle cruise ship vacations along with half as many now existing ship lines and twice as many agents trying to book them without use of telemarketing, FTC issue,. So no one is selling vacations, no one is buying them and Denver is in water drought and the fire scared travelers in the first part of the summer season and now they cannot tell their friends how great it was and spread the good will and word of mouth back to a town near you. In other markets there are similar issues and ones which are not similar to other regions such as in Portland with the fishing and boating industries. Salmon situation causing wars in Portland, http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/travel/tourism/2002/08/05/portland_story8.html?f=et186 A good Book to read on this subject to enlighten everyone on the issues from both sides is Totem Salmon by Freeman House. It is interesting how every area has a concern and when something negative happens such as an Earthquake, Tornando, Hurricane, Fire, In NYC International Terrorist Act, people shy away, even the Museums in D.C. are hurt bad. Think about it next time you watch TV and they try to scare the everliving bejesus out of you, when the real issues are not quite so bad. The Fires in CO were big, biggest ever, but they did not burn the whole state, the media did by over coverage of the events and other news associated with it.

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