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Snowmass Village (finally) set to host state tourism conference in 2022

Town was supposed to host in 2020, then 2021 before other factors got in the way

Snowmass Village was supposed to host the Governor’s Colorado Tourism Conference in 2020; the state had selected the town in 2019 for the opportunity. Then the pandemic hit, and the conference went virtual.

The town’s hosting duties got pushed to 2021 for the annual conference of hundreds of tourism leaders from across the state. Then Snowmass Village’s main conference center — and the hotel attached to it — sold to new owners, who announced the space would temporarily close from April 2021 until early winter for renovations. No conference center means no conference; this year’s meeting got moved to Pueblo, where industry reps and elected officials met from Nov. 3-5.

So it wasn’t exactly a huge surprise at this year’s conference when the Colorado Tourism Office announced last week that Snowmass Village would be the host of the 2022 iteration next September.



“It was probably the worst-kept secret,” Snowmass Tourism Director Rose Abello said in a Nov. 9 phone call.

The announcement means hundreds of tourism leaders from around Colorado will join for three days of seminars, workshops and speaker sessions on the weekend of Sept. 21-23, 2022 (so long as there aren’t any other major world events or local happenings that would impact the conference, anyway).




Conversations focus on what Abello considers “some of the most salient issues facing the tourism industry in Colorado,” like “workforce housing or short-term rentals or diversity, equity and inclusion,” she said.

The conference is “a great piece of business,” Abello said, but it’s also an opportunity to “show off our community” through offsite events and programming around town.

“There’s a lot of pent-up energy about hosting this conference for us,” Abello said. “We’re super excited about it.”

kwilliams@aspentimes.com

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