Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Tourism is expected to be off noticeably Saturday night compared to the same time in June 2005. However, it's still ahead of the corresponding weekend in June 2003 and 2004.

The Lodging Barometer, published by the Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Association, anticipates 8,000 people will check into area lodges and hotels tonight. That's down 1,000 from June 11, 2005.

Steamboat saw 7,900 visitors in town for the second weekend in June 2003 and 7,200 in 2004.

Businesses that depend upon tourism will benefit from the presence of the Rio 24 Hours of Steamboat mountain bike race and the Yampa River Festival this weekend. The Triple Crown girls' fast-pitch softball tournament, being played in Steamboat and Hayden this weekend, has grown by five teams.

An early glimpse of June 17 tourism shows next weekend will be much busier with 10,000 people in town. Still, that number would be down about 700 from last year and sufficient only to fill 61 percent of Steamboat's bed base.

Chamber spokeswoman Riley Polumbus said sign-ups for the summer-long calendar of Triple Crown softball and baseball events are generally up, however, next weekend's boys' baseball tournament is down by three teams to 85.

Steamboat's mountain hotels are expected to be at least 56 percent full Saturday night and mountain condos will be about 44 percent full. U.S. 40 hotels and motels will be 84 percent full.

Midweek tourism is projected to reach 4,000 visitors on June 14. That's off 1,800 people from last year.

Polumbus pointed out that the start of the summer-long Steamboat Springs Pro Rodeo Series has been pushed back this year to June 23.