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Steamboat Springs — Labor Day weekend was a busy time for Steamboat Springs as lodges in the area filled up with more visitors than expected. According to the Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Asso­ciation’s lodging barometer, 70 percent of the town’s available lodging was occupied Saturday.

“It was the last hurrah for the summer tourism season,” Mainstreet Steamboat Springs Manager Tracy Barnett said.

Across town, 9,700 pillows were occupied, 2,000 more than what was projected last week. On the same day last year, 9,000 pillows were occupied. Barnett said the combination of good weather and a variety of local events attracted many visitors.

“A lot of Labor Day visitors make up their minds to travel at the last minute,” she said. “They looked outside during the weekend and decided it would be a great time to visit Steamboat.”

Chamber Marketing Director Lynna Broyles said events that are relatively new to Steamboat have helped bring more visitors to town for Labor Day weekend throughout the years.

“With all of the different components of our Labor Day events, we have started to see more people come to town,” she said. “Events like the Wild West Air Fest and the Bull Bash were very well attended. Everyone we talked to in the visitor center was pleased with the different events going on over the weekend.”

But with Labor Day weekend finished, a slower fall tourism season begins. The Chamber’s lodging barometer predicts that 27 percent of lodging, or 3,700 pillows, will be occupied in town this weekend. The forecast for lodging Saturday is identical to a forecast released at the same time last year.

“There isn’t a lot going on this weekend, so the numbers are down,” Barnett said. “We’re hoping that the farmers market and the duckies race will be enough to keep people entertained.”

Downtown businesses also will have to deal with the continuation of the construction project on Lincoln Avenue, which resumed Tuesday. Barnett and Broyles said they think the construction’s impact on tourism will be less significant than it was in the spring.

“Because we’re coming to the end of the project, and with events wrapping up going into a quieter fall season, I think we’ll fare better than we did in the spring,” Broyles said. “Our fall visitors are coming up to see the trees, and the hunting groups we get here won’t be so heavily impacted by downtown construction just because their visitor usage of town is different from our spring consumer.”