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Vote yes on 5A

Dear Editor:

My name is Charley Case, and I am the general manager of the Annabelle Inn, and I am in favor of 5A. Additionally, I am the small hotel representative for the Aspen Lodging Association to the board of directors of Stay Aspen/Snowmass. I have spent nearly my entire adult life working in the hotel industry of the Roaring Fork Valley.

I am urging all my fellow voters to vote YES on 5A.



The city of Aspen is truly a wonderful place. We have world-class skiing. We have high- and low-brow culture flourishing alongside one another. We have natural beauty. We have a citizenry that is active both physically and civically. For decades, this was enough to separate Aspen from other mountain resorts.

That time has passed. We can no longer afford to lose visitors to other resorts for lack of marketing effort. We can no longer wait for guests, we must pursue them. Other resorts are shouting from the mountaintops, while we sit and wait for business to come to us.




These marketing dollars are especially important to the small businesses in town; most cannot fund a media buy outside of the local papers and radio. Many, if not most, of our jobs and those of our neighbors depend upon tourism. No matter how good our product is, and it is the best, tourists and their dollars will not make it to Aspen past the competition on their own. Aspen is being out-promoted by ALL other major resort towns.

So I urge all voters in the district to support 5A. The impact of a lodging tax falls only on the hotels and lodges, and we are the ones asking for the increase. Moreover, the success is shared by all businesses. Vote yes on 5A.

Charley Case

innkeeper, Annabelle Inn, Aspen