Y2k(& worse than norm snow) hurting CO. economy
Y2K scares skiers away from area
Resorts are offering rooms at early-season prices
By Robert Weller
Associated Press
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DENVER — There's plenty of room at the inn in Aspen for Christmas, and some rooms are going for $99 a night in the nation's glitziest resort.
Resorts in the Rockies, famed for their powder, are offering rooms at early-season prices for their busiest two weeks of the season as Y2K keeps the crowds at home.
Snow is falling almost daily at many Colorado resorts and most have decent bases after enduring an unusually warm Indian summer followed by water torture-like snowfalls of two or three inches a day instead of the hoped-for dumps.
"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to see these kinds of prices at this time of the year in the mountains," said Joan Christensen, spokeswoman for Winter Park. One luxury condo company is offering six-person lodgings for $33 per person.
"People can have much of the Rockies to themselves while others are awaiting an X-File to unfold upon them," said Jim Felton of Breckenridge.
"People who are not tied to work are crazy not to take advantage of it," Christensen said, speaking on a cellular phone as she shoveled freshly fallen snow from her driveway.
With reservations down 40 percent, many Park City, Utah, hotels and other lodgings, have cut rates by up to 50 percent.
Y2K fears and below-average snows are blamed (cont)
bouldernews.com |
