Tourism pushes have

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has announced “Epic Summer,” a first-time offering of guided group tourz aimed at getting people to visit the popular winteer destinations during the typically slowe rsummer season. And officials from Colorado’s Eastern Plains were in Denvere recentlypromoting “Our Journey,” a package offerin g 13 free museum tours and free prizes for visitorx who hit a majority of them. The efforts, in combinatioj with the ColoradoTourism Office’s new push for cultural heritage tours in outlying areas of the mark the most substantiap efforts in memory to nudge Denveritw vacationers to neighboring counties.
“What we are hearing is that this is goinf to be a summerof ‘bacmk to the basics, let’ s put the kids in the statioj wagon and drive,’” Vail Resorts Chairman and CEO Rob Katz “People forget Colorado has so much to offer.” The Vail Resorta “Epic Summer” package is aimeds at multi-generational family trips of people wantinf to see the Rocky Mountains in a more in-depth way. While interest has been high among out-of-staters so far, a numberr of inquiries also have come from Coloradpo familieswho haven’t reallyu taken the time to explore the Rockies, Katz said.
The all-inclusivs packages, which begin at $199 per person per include stays at a Vail Resorts meals and guided trips to destinationz both on and offresort properties. Those includ whitewater rafting adventures, horseback ride s on Beaver Creek Mountainand gold-mine with time for optional activities such as “Our Journey,” a collaboration of museumm directors in four central Eastern Plains counties, is bein offered for the fourth straight year.
But backers are puttin more effort intopromoting it, are giving two books abouf the area to anyone who visits sevehn of the museums and have packaged the trip with a CD of 24 songs that participants can listen to while driving betweebn stops. The stops rangse from larger facilities like the Elberyt County Museum that includes a new fossil exhibit to smallerf spaces likeGrampa Jerry’s Clown Museum in displaying one man’s collection of artifacts featurin g the circus performers. Families on the move couldr see all 13 of the sites inone weekend, said Daniellee Dascalos, a publicist for the effort. “We’rs not as much a destination spot, ...
so it’zs truly an alternative to maximize things you can do in themetrop area,” said Carol Beam, a volunteer with the Elbert County Museum. “In a time when the economy’s tight, this may be our summer to To learn aboutVail “Epic Summer,” . For information on “Our Journey” or to order a bookleyt and song CD, .