Salida Booming business at Monarch Mountain is having a trickle-down effect here this winter.
Traditionally a summer tourist destination, Salida attracts hordes of white-water rafters, kayakers and mountain bikers. It also offers the closest lodging to Monarch ski resort, where the number of visitors is up this winter.
“Our bread and butter is still summer, but Monarch and its expansion plans are really boosting our winter business,” said Jennifer Tynan, executive director of Salida’s Heart of the Rockies Chamber of Commerce.
The resort is also helping fill the city’s coffers. Lodging tax revenues for December were up more than 18 percent over last year; sales tax collections were up 9 percent.
Don Jackson, owner of Salida’s Super 8 Motel and a Monarch investor, said his average winter occupancy has grown from 60 percent to 85 percent over the past two years.
“Our valley has been overlooked for a long time in the ski business,” said Jackson, who has owned the 52-room motel for eight years. “We used to be a summer community, and whatever we got outside of that was lucky. But the ski customer stays longer on average and typically spends more money.”
Looming is an even bigger tourism boon – “Over the River,” the plan by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude to stretch sheets of brightly colored fabric across the Arkansas River for roughly 45 miles between Salida and Canyon City on U.S. 50.
The art exhibit could draw more than 250,000 tourists to the area, Tynan said.
“From a tourism perspective, we’re already getting global press on it,” she said. “There is no question it’s good for our local economy.”
A decision on the project is expected this fall. If approved, it could take place for two weeks during the summer of 2009.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
