ASPEN — — June produced double-digit increases in lodging occupancy in both Aspen and Snowmass Village, a performance that one local tourism official termed “extraordinary.”
Occupancy rates in Aspen were up 18.6 percent last month compared with June 2011, according to the Mountain Travel Research Program, or MTRiP, which tallies occupancy rates at resorts around Colorado and the West. Overall occupancy for the month stood at 62 percent based on a sampling of as many as 17 properties representing 1,510 lodging units in Aspen.
“It was one of the best Junes we’ve had,” said John Speers, general manager of the luxury Little Nell hotel at the base of Aspen Mountain. The final three weeks of the month weren’t a complete sellout, but the hotel was looking at sporadic vacancies — nights here and there, he reported.
A sellout 30th anniversary of the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and earlier dates for the Aspen Ideas Festival, which wrapped up the weekend before the midweek Fourth of July holiday, both helped drive up June numbers, according to Charlie Case, innkeeper at the Annabelle Inn on Main Street.
“We were near capacity for the second half of the month,” said Warren Klug, general manager of the Aspen Square Condo Hotel on Cooper Avenue.
For the months of May and June together, Aspen bookings were up about 22 percent compared with the same two months a year ago, according to MTRiP.
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