Pot vs. Utah

rfarren

New member
I've noticed recently in NYC that there have been a bunch of Utah ski tourism commercials. I know it's a bit early yet, but I wonder what type of effect Colorado's Marijuana laws will have on Utah's ski tourism. As a person who prefers Utah as a ski destination it doesn't bother me much either way. Park city can't be too happy... or maybe they will try to brand themselves as the "family" pot free destination.
 
That's going to be very hard to measure with any credibility. There were a couple of articles in the Aspen papers while I was there.

While recreational shops were allowed to open Jan. 1, half of the 37 that opened were in Denver, and Breck and Telluride were the only ski towns that had one. Aspen has a medical shop, and it was expected to take until late February before it complied with state and local regulations for recreational sales.

Colorado's medical marijuana regulations are more stringent than the nearly non-existent ones here in California. The Aspen shop was turning away all the vacationers until they get the recreational license. Another Colorado regulation is that recreational shops must grow at least 70% of their supply. The Aspen shop was busy building a greenhouse complex somewhere downvalley.

Colorado skier numbers vastly exceed Utah's in large part due to the resort towns. Separating the pot shops out from other attractions of the resort towns to visitors is unlikely IMHO.

Utah skier numbers have grown faster than Colorado's over the past 15 years, probably due to 2 new big areas (Canyons and Snowbasin) coming online.
 
I think its having an effect just as a novelty. I also think there will be a backlash next year and CO will suffer. CO is having a great snow year so thats a bonus for them.
 
The majority of deviation for trend in skier visits is due to how good or bad a snow year it is. So we can expect Colorado to look very good relative to other ski regions this season, and for casual observers to attribute that incorrectly to the pot law.
 
Tony I think you over estimate the average skier, many saw the pot laws coming long before the snow fell.
 
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