Jackson tourism officials are expecting a busy New Year’s holiday.
The lodging barometer, which measures lodging bookings for the valley shows occupancy at 72-percent of full for the Saturday before New Year’s. That’s up significantly from last year’s 59-percent and the 49-percent that was recorded in 2010.
Kate Foster of the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce says the turnaround is based on a couple of things.
“We would probably attribute that to number 1, is our fabulous snow. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is reporting nearly 200 inches as of today, where some resorts in Colorado as closer to 50, or even less than 50. And then we’ve also been working with our Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Joint Powers Board who have been working to promote the valley, especially in the winter season.”
Foster said that included helping travelers get to Jackson.
“We do have a number of new direct flights. We have amazing air coverage from Chicago, from California, from the East Coast, and the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board has definitely been focusing a lot of their efforts on places where we do get direct flights.”
Winter is usually the slow season in Jackson, but Foster says that 70-percent occupancy is a strong number for any season.