The Mother of all Gridlocks.

• Author: RUNDLES, JEFF
• Position: Quality of transportation services during ski season - Brief Article

SNOW WON'T BRING THE SKIERS BACK; IMPROVED TRANSPORTATION WILL

I have long been an advocate for tourism in Colorado, and I think it's nice but short-sighted that the state is allocating a pittance for advertising the wonders of our state compared with the ample budget that was available a few years ago. Tourism is big business, with a ton of jobs, and needs to be supported.

A major portion of those tourism dollars comes from the ski industry and skiing is, of course, our obvious drawing card. But I am worried about the ski industry. Very worried.

I first took to the slopes of Colorado 27 years ago, and I know from first-hand experience that skiing here is as good as it gets. But the skier numbers have been dropping of late, precipitously, as if the industry itself has Blue-Square ability on a Black-Diamond run. You can explain some of this by poor weather; the snows of the early winter have been lax lately, no doubt. And you can ascribe some of it to the competition from Canada, where a combination of great skiing, excellent marketing, and a weak currency have been quite a draw. And further, you can make an argument that people from around the country, even the world, are taking more but shorter vacation trips closer to home, which precludes the all-out Colorado ski adventure.

These are all factors, and they are all factors cited by Colorado Ski Country USA, the state's main industry trade group. But there is more going on here, and it needs to be addressed.

Colorado Ski Country statistics indicate that 30% of yearly state skier visits come from the state itself, meaning that 70% of the people are what they call "destination skiers," people coming here on vacation. This is pointed out, I believe, so that the fall-off in skier visits can be blamed on forces outside of the control of the industry. In other words, it's a copout.

As I see it, the main problem for the Colorado ski industry is in getting there. Yes, the 30% of us who come from the state of Colorado know it is horrific to get in and out of Colorado ski resorts, but unfortunately the industry would like us to believe the rest of...