Mountain Town News: Pot and tourism, gun laws, winter flights
Pot hurts tourism?
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. – Is cannabis bad for the tourism business? That’s the fundamental question around which a special election will be held Tuesday, Dec. 9, in Breckenridge.
Voters are being asked whether they think cannabis shops should be allowed on the town’s Main Street and in adjoining areas. There’s one such retail store now, but the other four marijuana businesses operate in a service-oriented area distant from hotels.
The debate was so heated last summer that the town council sent the issue to voters for a non-binding show of hands. One faction in Breckenridge has argued that cannabis should not be viewed any differently than alcohol, and the town doesn’t ban sales of beer, wine, and hard liquor in the town’s primary shopping district.
But a string of former mayors plus several business groups argue that cannabis could sully the image of Breckenridge in the minds of tourists, causing them to go elsewhere.
“The reality is that in the world of vacation destinations, Breckenridge has a great deal of competition,” wrote Bob Gordman in a letter published in the Summit Daily News. He characterized marijuana stores on Main Street as an “experiment,” with the stores gaining – but potentially the whole community losing.
Evidence from last winter might suggest the opposite. Ski Area Management, a magazine in the ski industry, points out that one study found 90 percent of the marijuana sold in Colorado ski towns was purchased by tourists.
That being the case, it’s also worth noting that 2013-14 skier visits in Colorado rose more than 10 percent compared to last season, and more than 8 percent compared to the state’s five-year average.
“It seems that fears of lost visits were not what they were cracked up to be,” the magazine declared in its September issue.
From Vail comes anecdotal evidence of the same. One real estate agent reports that his clients ask him about it. What do they ask? “Mostly where to get it,” he says.
Vail, for the time being, has said no. Those buyers of million-dollar real estate have to go outside Vail to secure their THC.
Plug-ins among hotel upgrades
JASPER, Alberta – Ever been in a hotel room where you had to use an electrical outlet in the bathroom to recharge your cell phone?
You’re not alone. Most hotel rooms—including those of the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge —were designed prior to smart phones and laptops.
“What guests expect today versus what they expected 10 years ago is very different,” Markus Treppenhauer, general manager of the hotel, told Jasper’s Fitzhugh newspaper.
To figure out how to accommodate the shifting tastes of guests, the hotel mocked up a model room. Based on that experience, it then renovated three more rooms, just to make sure the design worked. Only after further refinements was the full $16 million renovation started.
Treppenhauer said the Fairmont will never be completely “modern,” because it’s important that changes reflect the rustic atmosphere of the park that surrounds it.
Park City amends gun law
PARK CITY, Utah – With a distinct lack of enthusiasm, the Park City Council has loosened its gun laws. It’s now legal to a carry concealed weapons down the street and to have a loaded gun inside a car.
Furthermore, the city’s law that prohibited someone drawing or showing a gun in “an angry or threatening manner” was stricken.
The Park Record explains that the council took the action after being informed by a gun-rights group based in Bellevue, Wash., that the provisions violated state law in Utah. The group threatened a lawsuit.
The city attorney told elected officials that Park City’s revised law still prohibits someone from discharging a firearm within the city.
Big real estate sales in Aspen
ASPEN, Colo. – It’s not quite like the crazy times of about seven years ago, but real estate activity continues to accelerate.
News in Aspen is of a new penthouse that was sold for a price of $3,100 per square foot, which ranks right near the front trickle of prices in the Aspen-Vail markets from the pre-recession era. The total sale came in at $15.8 million.
The Aspen Times says the sale was the fourth in November of more than $10 million. The Aspen-area real estate market through September was 13 percent ahead of last year.
Vail’s winter flights stabilized
VAIL, Colo. – Eagle County Regional Airport, located 35 miles downvalley from Vail, once was the second busiest in Colorado during the winter. Not any more.
The Vail Daily reports that tens of thousands of seats were lost as a result of the recession plus a switch to smaller planes.
But for now, the Daily says, it looks like the declines have stopped.
For several years, tourism promoters have been pushing for local governments to adopt a tax or some other permanent funding source to be used to post revenue guarantees.
Chris Romer, chief executive of the Vail Valley Partnership, urged a more aggressive approach. “There’s pressure from other resorts, especially in Utah,” he said. “Even if you’re on track, you need to keep moving forward.”
Whistler’s rental crunch
WHISTLER, B.C. – The story out of Whistler should resonate in almost every ski town. In mid-November, just 15 housing units were advertised for rent in Whistler, compared to 68 on the same date three years ago.
It’s not just fewer units, but also higher prices. Price of a one-bedroom has ballooned from $1,173 last year to $1,376 this year, reports Pique.
Joel Chevalier, director of employee experience for Whistler Blackcomb, the ski area operator, was surprised by the rapid tightening in the housing market. The company thinks that owners and managers are taking condos (suites in Canada) off the market.
The Whistler Housing Authority says that 63 percent of the local workforce lives in resident-restricted housing.
