Less crowds, more visitation for Aspen in 2027?

The Aspen Chamber Resort Association updated Aspen City Council in a work session Monday on the considerations around the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport closure in 2027 and expectations around the destination experience.

ACRA conducted visitor research for 2025 visitors and found that two-thirds of visitors expressed that the upcoming airport closure had no impact on their visitation intent for Aspen next year. ACRA Senior Vice President of Destination Marketing Eliza Voss shared that an additional 18.6% said that they were more likely to visit during that time, due to an expectedly less crowded experience. A separate study aimed at hotel guests asked the same question and the outcome stayed consistent.

“The expectations for those visitors is that the less crowding is what’s driving the increased likelihood,” Voss said. “I think at the Aspen Chamber level, and just generally speaking, we feel like people are not going to be scared to come, but we should be aware of how we can ease the experience once in the destination to provide for a good visitor experience.” 

Voss added that all tourism partners — including Aspen One and Snowmass Tourism — have agreed to update individual websites for ground transportation and plan summer visitation campaigns that target national and international visitors.

Voss confirmed that all events, with the exception of the Aspen Security Forum at The Aspen Institute, are proceeding as scheduled next summer, and all partners at the Eagle and Grand Junction airports have access to those dates so they can plan accordingly.

“The overall messaging is that the closure affects one way of getting here, but not the experience within the destination,” Voss said.

According to Fly Aspen Snowmass Consultant Bill Tomcich, the Denver International Airport is the second airport with the highest passenger rate of Roaring Fork Valley visitors, with approximately 193,233 resident and visitor enplanements, following Aspen’s 317,755. 

He also shared with council that research based on historical data trends showed 50% of summertime visitors use the Aspen airport and 45% use the Denver airport. 

“Right now, there is no scheduled ground transportation between Aspen and Denver, so the vast majority of those passengers each way are using private automobiles — that’s a lot of cars,” Tomcich said. “This is a longer-term issue that we’re definitely working on addressing.”

In response to the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport closure, the total Eagle County Regional Airport 2027 peak summer flight schedule will jump from 46 weekly flights this summer to 112 weekly flights next summer, according to previous reporting by The Aspen Times.

“We owe it to these airlines that are not asking for any subsidies for this expanded service into Eagle to provide some options of private vehicles and one-way rental cars to get them to and from the Eagle airport,” Tomcich said.

He added that an announcement with regard to proposed shuttles from Eagle is coming within the next few weeks. 

But Council Member Bill Guth raised concerns that he doesn’t think enough is being done to anticipate next summer’s impacts. 

“Our local businesses can’t weather one terrible year,” Guth said. “I think we have an opportunity to be as proactive as we can possibly be. I’m totally supportive of the airport project, but it’s likely going to come with some pain, and what can we do to prevent unnecessary damage to our community?” 

While he floated the idea of vacating lodging taxes as an oprtion to mitigate tourism loss, Council Members Christine Benedetti and John Doyle, along with Aspen Mayor Richael Richards, expressed discomfort with the idea of a lodging tax holiday. 

“For me, I think the conversation needs to start with some of our landlords to say … ‘are you going to cut people if business is down 10%?'” Richards said. “This is not Covid. This is not something that will go on for two or three years. This has a set beginning and end and I think there’s going to be a lot of celebrations and fanfare when the airport reopens.”

Benedetti did, however, express support for a possible relief fund if the summer doesn’t go well.

“I think that if we could offer some sort of piece to businesses or even just a conversation about starting it up, I would be supportive of that,” Benedetti said.

Council Member Sam Rose asked ACRA to return to staff following upcoming listening sessions with recommendations where the city might be able to intervene and help local businesses. 

ACRA will return to council on Oct. 26 about their 2027 budget, specifically discussing transportation alternatives, leisure booking incentives and an increase of visitation campaign spending. 

No action is requested from council at this time.