Jul 4, 2008

Out-of-way spots like Colo. hit as travelers stick closer to homeBy Joanne KelleyRockyMountainNews.com

Judy Curtis and her husband hoped to travel to Venice, Italy, this summer as a reward for paying off the mortgage on their Boulder home.

But after further investigation, the couple figured their money would go farther in their own country – even after flying to Alaska and taking a driving tour of the state.

That was before airfares and fees kept marching upward and gasoline prices climbed to $4 a gallon.

In the end, they settled on a far more modest option: a day in nearby Estes Park for the annual Scottish Festival.

“It feels like a good summer to have a . . . what are they calling it, a ‘stay-cation?’ ” said Curtis, 61. “We’re not feeling as rich as we did before.”

Such downsizing tends to happen as travelers get closer to making plans. But economic trends and the rising cost of flying and driving could combine to hit the tourism sector with a whammy it hasn’t experienced since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“It’s inevitable, it (the economy) is going to have an impact,” said Richard Scharf, president of the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau. “The only thing we can be assured of is it’s going to impact every city and every state.”

But some forecasters expect geographically isolated places such as Colorado to suffer more than others.

“I would include Colorado among the places that have become a large-scale tourist attraction because of the steady decline in airfares,” said Anthony Townsend, research director with the Institute for the Future, a think tank based in Menlo Park, Calif.

Over the short term, Townsend sees tourism taking “a big hit, particularly for places that aren’t really feasible for large numbers of people to get to in any other way.”

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