Colorado welcomes more than 1 million international skiers every winter, with visitors from the U.K. the largest market. Yet Vail Resorts Inc. is not concerned about local ramifications of Thursday’s foiled London terrorism plot.
“There is a quite a bit of time before our winter season begins,” said spokeswoman Kelly Ladyga. “We don’t think it will have any impact on business.”
Members of Colorado’s tourism industry echoed that sentiment Thursday, saying they expect few changes.
“I don’t believe it will have an impact like 9/11,” said Carol Tsu tsui, owner of Denver’s Mountain Pacific Travel. “People have gotten used to the alerts, the extra security. They’re still going to travel.”
Tsutsui said only one client canceled a flight out of Denver International Airport on Thursday morning, opting to drive to Oklahoma City instead.
Bill Tomcich, president of Stay Aspen/Snowmass, the largest lodging reservation agency in the Aspen area, said it had no cancellations Thursday.
“We don’t have a whole lot of international travelers here in the summer,” he said. “My larger concern is what this is going to do to our winter bookings, whether or not people will take a wait-and-see attitude on how long these new regulations are going to be in place.”
Organizers of this weekend’s Denver Grand Prix said they didn’t expect the airline hassles to hurt attendance.
“We’re primarily a regional event that people drive to,” said general manager Rob Johnson. “So I think we’re good.”
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
