Colorado tourism bosses believe that new flight routes from the UK will promote the state to a raft of potential visitors.
United Airlines will begin non-stop flights to Denver in March next year, while Norwegian’s direct flights began in September with a lower price-point. The city is also served direct by British Airways, and indirect by Icelandair.
A range of UK travel companies including Barrhead Travel, Flight Centre, North American Travel Service and USAirtours are currently developing or expanding programmes to cater for growing demand.
Cathy Ritter, director of the Colorado Tourism Office, said: “We have more direct routes from the UK than ever before and it remains our number one overseas market. We are expecting final visitor numbers for 2016 to be fairly flat on 2015 at around 70,000, but the introduction of the new flights demonstrates that the demand is there.”
Denver will host the IPW conference in 2018, with post-event fam trips planned to take in the entire state and showcase activities including music, cuisine, skiing and soft and hard adventure.