SOUTHERN COLORADO — Tourist attractions across Colorado continue to feel the impacts of COVID-19, but the July 4th holiday weekend brought in a record number of guests for some businesses.
Laurie Zickefoose, co-owner of Old Stage Riding Stables, said, "There was a few weeks there where we thought we might have to close down...it was pretty devastating because one thing about horses is they eat no matter what, whether we're busy or not."
Fortunately, Zickefoose shared that business has picked up in the last few weeks. As for the July 4th weekend she said, "We were shocked at how busy we were, probably one of the record-breaking weekends we have ever had...we're really happy if we have about 40 people a day and we were up to 60...now, I think we're sold out for the next three days. We were not expecting this."
At the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park Vice President of Operations Jeremy Boswell said, "We had a great weekend. We saw a lot of people come out. We were down between last July 4th, the holiday specific, about 19%, but the crowds that came out were great...we think it's really encouraging and that 4th of July is a good pulse for kind of just what's going on statewide at least and how we feel people are moving around."
These attractions - happy and hopeful, and holding fast that 2020 tourism remains promising.
