YOUR AD HERE »

Snowy winter boosts Colorado ski towns to record-breaking sales tax revenues

Ski resort communities are hopeful that the big bucks spent at local businesses will translate to investments in affordable housing and a year-round recreation market

Jason Blevins / The Colorado Sun
Clouds cross over the high alpine area of Breckenridge Ski Resort on Wednesday, March 6. This winter's strong snowfall has been credited for boosting sales across Summit County, and the March sales tax reports from Breckenridge, Dillon and Frisco show significant growth in those towns compared to March 2018.
Hugh Carey / hcarey@summitdaily.com

It was yet another banner year for Colorado’s resort communities, with at least five ski towns boasting record sales tax revenue for the 2018-19 ski season 

A tally of taxable sales from December through March for Aspen, Breckenridge, Vail, Winter Park and Telluride reveals record spending in the towns. While skier visits to Colorado’s resorts will rank 2018-19 among the busiest in history, thanks in large part to the state’s growing population and plentiful snow, spending across resorts indicates the season was not only busy, but lucrative. Resort town businesses harvested more money than ever before this season.

“Everybody had a good winter,” said Catherine Ross, the executive director of the Winter Park and Fraser Chamber of Commerce. “So many people in town left for vacation this month. So I’m happy that our business owners did so well this winter they were able to take a vacation and come back ready for a big summer.”



Last fall the business community in the Fraser Valley joined with the new operator of Winter Park ski area — Alterra Mountain Co. — to develop a unified marketing plan and logo. That partnership fueled the best winter ever for the valley, Ross said. Winter Park saw taxable sales hit records every month of the winter, totalling $78.8 million for the season, more than double the sales from 2008-09.

Read the full article on the Colorado Sun website.



The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization dedicated to covering the people, places and policies that matter in Colorado. Read more, sign up for free newsletters and subscribe at coloradosun.com.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.