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Perhaps the major benefit of patronizing a small mountain town is that if a business is open (many rural merchants understandably find trout streams more appealing than tending store, and their hours of operation thereby tend to the erratic), you seldom have to stand in line.
But there was a line of metropolitan proportions at a convenience store in Fairplay last Sunday afternoon, and the clerk, when I asked, had no idea why Fairplay was so busy. At the other end of town, people swarmed through the restored mining camp of South Park City.
Traffic along U.S. 285 was hardly gridlocked (if 55 mph is the speed limit between Antero Junction and Fairplay, it's the minimum, not the maximum), but it was a solid stream of bicycle carriers, camping trailers and motor homes. Usually that highway is vacant between Bailey and Antonito.
Nor is Park County alone in this uncharacteristic frenzy. Salida is so busy that it can take five or ten minutes to cross the highway or to find a parking spot downtown. Even remote Westcliffe, where I've been helping with some new computers at the weekly Wet Mountain Tribune, appears to bustle of late.
Based on these unrepresentative recent samples, it seems obvious that tourism is booming this summer. But why?
Perhaps the movers and shakers have hit on a promotional hustle that works. Heaven knows, they've tried plenty in the past: Hot springs touted for the potent radioactivity in their water, free meals on days without sunshine, illuminated waterfalls, bison petting zoos, fur-bearing trout, etc.
However, we'd have probably heard of such promotions if
they were working. Tourists would ask directions to
Alferd Packer's Meat Shoppe
or Brick Pomeroy's
Silver Tunnel,
and instead, their questions always
concern the whereabouts of the post office or the ATM
machine.
So there must be other factors, like the floods in the Midwest. If your farm is submerged, you might as well take a trip, and if you had a choice between mucking out a garage in Des Moines or wandering around the Rockies, the decision would come easily. Then there's the heat wave on the East Coast to propel more visitors this way.
As for the West Coast, source of many other tourists,
the inspiration might work like this: Judging by the
pictures in this brochure, Colorado looks a lot like
California.
You're right. It looks just like home.
They even have brush fires and drive-by shootings.
But it's not as crowded.
Let's check it out this
summer.
Maybe they're all coming because celebrity endorsements actually work. The Pope and the President will, by their actions, endorse Colorado this week as the preferred spot for a quiet getaway vacation, and the advance publicity may have inspired millions of people to try the same thing.
Or it could be reverse endorsements. Prominent Hollywood
types announce that they're boycotting Colorado on account
of Amendment 2, and some minds will reckon his way:
There's no chance of encountering Barbra Streisand in
Colorado. They aren't shooting any movies there, either, so
we won't have to worry about film crews blocking off an
area or taking up all the motel rooms and restaurant seats
in some little town. If we're ever going to see Colorado,
this is the year to do it.
Another possibility: Gov. Roy Romer hasn't been promoting the state much recently. He may have noticed that business boomed under Dick Lamm, a/k/a Gov. Gloom. For some perverse reason, Americans like to go to places -- pool halls, unofficial swimming holes, Colorado -- that are discouraged by authorities.
Perhaps the tourism increase isn't statewide. I've talked to people who said they used to go to Cripple Creek, but now that you can't do anything except gamble there, they're exploring other parts of the state. After all, very little is unique or thrilling about the experience of standing in line and being relieved of your money.
As the ad wonders, Why ask why?
Well, it would be
nice to know what's behind the tourism surge, so that we
could turn it on and off as necessary.
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