City of Boulder, CO Inside Boulder, 3 Feb 2011

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From YouTube: Inside Boulder - Winter Sports Economics

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Inside Boulder - Winter Sports Economics

A

Welcome back to inside Boulder, and this show- we've been speaking about winter sports and things to do around the city. Joining us today is Marianne Mahoney from the border pension, Visitors, Bureau, Marine, welcome to inside borders, great.

B

A

Earlier, in the show, we were speaking with roblin from elder mountain resort, talking about the types of skiing that they cater to an amount of business. Can you talk to us a little about the types of impact we have from winter tourism and having a ski resort here? Well,.

B

For a long time, we had a difficult time marketing boulder until we found a winter partner which is outdoor mountain resort, and it has been a wonderful partnership because we partnered in a program called Boulder ski escape, which is a partnership between the convention and visitors. Bureau. Our hotels, / 21, participate in eldora, so I all put money into the pot and then have created this great destination package for visitors, so it has grown I. Think we're going to our seventh year this year we've grown double digits every single year, which is fabulous.

B

It's really really great. That's.

C

Wonderful, so do you think, because we have Eldora so close by and it's such a huge part of our winter activities here? Do? Is there a trickle down in that we would have more restaurants and ski shops and that kind of thing, because Eldora so close, I.

B

Don't know that we'd have more. However, what we do is offer that additional business that they wouldn't normally have those additional diners so we're up to about 3,000 lift tickets, which is about 1,600, 1,600 individuals, and so you figure they spend over three hundred and fourteen dollars a day, and so that is a family eating three meals out. They that includes the overnight hotel. That includes retail. So it is more than trickle-down its direct impact. It's really great! So.

C

How much of the marketing about boulder in the winter is built around skiing in eldora and things you can due up there? Well.

B

It's a challenge because it is a small percentage. We were at fifteen percent prior years prior of our total market, visitor came during the winter so and that's the recreation visitor. So what we've tried to do is in the last few years on have those business travelers tack on a day because that's become very popular recently in the last three years with our economic challenge, some people could get some visits in some other recreation in a people would add a recreation day to their business travel.

B

So now it's about twenty twenty two percent of our marketing. However, we have to be very careful of how we market Boulder as a winter destination, because the Colorado message out there is snow everywhere and we don't want to over promise that we'll have snow everywhere in Boulder. So we're very careful about that. So.

A

We're en with Boulder having some days where we have 50 degree, weather or other days, we have a foot of snow. How much of the winter tourism in the winter sports is boulders economy. It's.

B

I, look at our recent surveys that we took took place in two thousand nine and ten. So it's about twenty percent of our of our total market and so again people that come specifically for recreation, because we have that business traveller that comes year-round. We have that friends and family that we rely on that come year round. So, if we look at just that specific niche, it's about twenty percent, just really I think a good portion, a good balance and and.

C

How does your group, the Convention and Visitor's Bureau, walk the line between promoting all the great things Boulder has to offer, and not overdoing the impact for the gear round residents on open space for well.

B

I know there's a substitute e to that, because people want to save their precious gems, but I.

B

Think if you talk to our open space, mountain parks, people that our busiest season is summer and if you ask them, if there's too many visitors on the trails, they would say it's the busiest time but I think we have a long way in a lot of capacity before we ever reach that, because, when you're online getting ready to go on the left or in a restaurant, you don't know if the table next to you is an out-of-state visitor or not so, but what we try to do and we encourage hiking and biking also in the winter that we have this map.

B

And it's really not the overused trails. We don't want to send somebody to sanitas for a gentle hike and a recreational hike because its most people's training ground. So we really try to divert people into a broad area of things to do so. It's not concentrated in one area, fantastic.

C

Well, thank you for being with us today, Marianna pleasure.

B

Thanks for inviting us, we've.

C

Been speaking with Marianne Mahoney of the boulder Convention and Visitor's Bureau about marketing boulder in the winter and we'll be back after this.