International travel is up in 2010, but where are the Baby Boomers headed?
Up until Q4 2008, if you had a reason to frequent the Colorado Passport Agency on South Vaughn Way in Aurora, you had to plan on spending the better half of a day. That's what it took if your back was against the wall and you'd overlooked renewing your passport. Oddly, by January 2009, snap, there were no waiting lines; otherwise frequent flyers had clamped down on their travel plans, at least for the short haul.
Fifteen months later, the passport office is hopping again. Appointments are required. Call it a sign -- a hopeful one.
Coloradans are a singular bunch when it comes to making leisure travel plans. While the rest of the nation plans leisure travel only 90 days out, we Coloradans make our leisure travel plans up to six months in advance. Hey, we rank second in the country for number of certified scuba divers and yet we are landlocked. Go figure.
In part, Coloradans' outbound travel preferences have to do with our native geography. As the most isolated major city in the Continental U.S.--the biggest airport between St. Louis, Mo. and San Francisco, Calif.--Denver is a natural hub for the airlines. As planes break through the clouds over Denver International Airport, passengers often don't believe what they're seeing down below. The stretch of terminal resembles three dozen snowy mountain peaks soaring into the air. According to Bob Schulman (a co-founder of Frontier Airlines and travel editor for WatchBoom.com), the 15-year-old airport is the fifth busiest terminal in the United States and the 10th busiest in the world. Last year it served more than 50 million passengers.
On the counterbalance, tourists to Colorado are twice as likely to fly into Denver than to get here any other way, according to Rich Grant, director of communications for Visit Denver, and a senior contributing writer toWatchBoom.com.
While a decade ago the topmost tourist destination in Denver was the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, the Internet has changed all that. Now one can shop virtually at most of the finest retailers in the world; no need to necessarily cruise the mall. In 2010, the top ranked paid attraction is the Denver Zoo, followed by the Colorado Rockies home field, with 50,000 seats and 82 games a year. The short list also includes the Downtown Aquarium and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
Denverites think nothing of driving to Vail for lunch, 100 miles to the west. In the process they cross the highest automobile tunnel on the planet (Eisenhower Tunnel), which, at 11,000 ft. elevation, is 6,000 ft higher than Denver. When Rich Grant compares that journey to New Yorkers taking lunch at the highest peak in the Adirondacks, hours and hours away in upstate New York, he adds, "It isn't going to happen."
Denver's seven metro counties are the size of Connecticut. Stand on Union Boulevard in Jefferson County and look east and the climate and landscape look the same as far as you can see. But drive westward from Union to Mt. Evans and you'll pass through five different climate zones within 62 miles.
In the first two years of Colorado's Gold Rush (1858 - 1861) an estimate 100,000 people walked here from Kansas. They needed a hotel, they needed a drink, they needed supplies. They needed the sorts of amenities the real winners in the Gold Rush soon began to provide--hospitality in the form of hotels, saloons and general stores. (Another nugget from Rich Grant: The first performance of Shakespeare was held in a Denver saloon well before the Queen City had either a school or a hospital.)
Tourism remains today the second biggest industry in Colorado with 140,000 employees counted in the hospitality sector.
Despite the state's natural attractions (example: the famous Red Rocks Amphitheater, which hosted The Beatles, U2 and countless others), and forgetting the fact that we have more pro sports teams than any other U.S. city along with six newer stadiums and a performing arts center that is second only in size to New York City, Coloradans have always had an affinity for Mexico and tropical travel. The now-defunct Ports Of Call Travel Club underwrote that interest from 1967-1986 with flights to rarer destinations like Manzanillo, Colima. With 29,000 members at its peak, this was the largest travel club in the United States.
Baby Boomers (those born between 1945 and 1964) have reached their prime. They are in their prime earning years, they're independent, they're in good health, they're freer than at any other time of their lives, most having wrapped up their child-raising responsibilities. Demographers conclude that Boomers also share a new attitude that will ensure the travel industry's future prosperity: Baby Boomers believe travel is a necessity, not necessarily a luxury.
As the biggest generation, Boomers are beginning to evidence trends in travel that will rewrite the travel industry, coming or going, from Denver.
Read more on Baby Boomer Travel at www.WatchBoom.com.