Jay,
It may well be difficult at best to determine just what factor will have actually affected the final ridership numbers for the 2001 season. Marketing surely cannot be fully to blame for the downswing in numbers since Sept 11. Tourism worldwide is hurting bigtime since 9/11. One cannot ignore the influence of those awful events of that tragic day and the history that is unfolding as a result of that day. The fact remains that prior to 9/11, ridership was up over last year.
Why would ridership abruptly take a downswing after 9/11?
What marketing failure caused the public to cut back on travel to/from Colorado/NM on 9/11?
If you consider the TV interviews of other tourist industry operations, the C&TS should feel lucky its business didn't drop in half like the folks in Las Vegas, Disneyworld and elsewhere. Frankly, IMHO, the marketing that has been done so far has no doubt played an important (albeit not the only factor) role in preventing the total demise of the whole operation. There is always room for improvement, and I am sure that is true of the marketing program, but to lay the whole blame for ridership failing to reach the predicted increased levels seems, well, just narrow-gauged.
Please, I'm not picking a fight, just being opinionated.
Jay, please keep the pictures (and the unofficial event reporting) coming, I'll try to do something to help support that at your website.
(Fire away >>>>>>>
Mark