{"id":2457132,"date":"2020-04-13T22:56:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T04:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/covid-19-crisis-has-occupancy-in-aspen-snowmass-at-historic-lows\/"},"modified":"2020-04-13T22:56:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T04:56:00","slug":"covid-19-crisis-has-occupancy-in-aspen-snowmass-at-historic-lows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/covid-19-crisis-has-occupancy-in-aspen-snowmass-at-historic-lows\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 crisis has occupancy in Aspen\/Snowmass at historic lows"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/skicobiz-atd-010919-1-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/skicobiz-atd-010919-1-1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/skicobiz-atd-010919-1-1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">Tuesday marks one month since Gov. Jared Polis ordered the state\u2019s ski areas to shut down, sending what was a very strong tourism economy in Aspen into a tailspin, and occupancy projections show the summer season is pacing 42% behind from last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">That\u2019s according to the latest report from central reservations agency Stay Aspen Snowmass and DestiMetrics, which tracks lodging at resorts around the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The winter was pacing ahead of last year in occupancy until <a id=\"N0x21beb90N0x233a630:N0x21beb90N0x2175868\" href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1dXyZTTICG07_C7fHk04iKi8ZwbDlPtT0\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">public health orders<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i> went into effect mid-March in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">During a news conference Monday, Polis described his March 14 decision to close the ski areas as \u201cextremely painful.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/at-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Once the ski areas, restaurants, bars, lodging and non-essential businesses closed, Aspen and Snowmass saw steep declines in occupancy almost immediately.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Kristi Kavanaugh, vice president of sales for Aspen Skiing Co., called March \u201ca month that will go down in infamy\u201d in the executive report released Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">March\u2019s occupancy was 40.8% worse than the same time in 2019. Aspen achieved 45.2% occupancy last month, down 42.9%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Snowmass had 49.6% of its rooms filled, which was down 38.3% from March 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">With hotels still closed, April is at 0.9% occupancy, compared with last year\u2019s 33.7%, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">As of March 31, the combined occupancy of Aspen and Snowmass was down 8.6% from last winter\u2019s record performance. Aspen trails last season by 7.4% and Snowmass is behind 9.9%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">With the cancellations of major events like <a id=\"N0x21beb90N0x233a750:N0x21beb90N0x2175d78\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-food-wine-cancelled\/\">Aspen Food &amp; Wine Classic<\/a> and the Aspen Ideas Festival, \u201csummer leisure booking pace came to a virtual halt in March and April, further deepening summer\u2019s occupancy pace,\u201d Kavanaugh wrote. \u201cCurrently, summer is sitting just below 15% and is pacing behind last summer by 42.2%.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But there is a silver lining in the report, which is there are events and groups confirmed for July and later in the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cMany are holding out hope we can get back to business and tourism later this summer,\u201d Kavanaugh wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">City Finance Director Pete Strecker said in his March tax projections that weakness is expected through the summer not only because of the cancellation of events, but also uncertainty of global and state travel restrictions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cTourism is only expected to make a modest rebound in mid-to-late summer, with destination marketing partners focused on key U.S. markets \u2014 Colorado, New York, Florida, Texas and additional direct flight markets,\u201d Strecker wrote in a memo. \u201cIt is anticipated that the rebound will continue into the fall and by December, anticipate a weaker open to the ski season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Aspen City Council on Tuesday is expected to approve a <a id=\"N0x21beb90N0x233a7b0:N0x21beb90N0x21760d8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-electeds-make-historic-vote-for-5m-covid-19-emergency-relief-stimulus-package\/\">$6 million local economic relief package<\/a> as the municipal government braces for an estimated revenue shortfall of nearly $13 million in lodging and sales tax revenue this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">That\u2019s based off a projected reduction of $277 million in the sales and lodging tax base as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Strecker said the city administration is scaling back its operations and will bring forward a formalized cost cutting package for council to consider in the near future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:csackariason@aspentimes.com\">csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/local\/covid-19-crisis-has-occupancy-in-aspen-snowmass-at-historic-lows\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday marks one month since Gov. Jared Polis ordered the state\u2019s ski areas to shut down, sending what was a very strong tourism economy in Aspen into a tailspin, and occupancy projections show the summer season is pacing 42% behind from last year. That\u2019s according to the latest report from central reservations agency Stay Aspen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2457132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 04:15:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2457132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2457132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2457132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2457132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}