Economic Impact of Irene on Killington

The economic impact of Irene is already being felt on the Killington area, especially with this being Labor Day weekend, and leaf-peeping season just around the corner. Already, the following cancellations have taken place:

• Pico Mountain has been closed for the summer season.
• The Killington golf course has been closed until futher notice.
• Killington has closed down mountain biking for the season so that they can focus on preparing for the winter season.
• Killington Mountain has been closed for hiking and gondola rides until further notice.
• All events and reservations at Killington Resort (including The Killington Grand) have been canceled through September 18.
• The IDIC 15 Road Race scheduled for September 18, 2011 has been canceled.
• The Killington Classic scheduled for September 8, 2011 has been canceled.
• The Killington Farm to Table Festival scheduled for September 16-17, 2011 has been canceled.
• The Pico Septemberfest scheduled for September 25, 2011 has been canceled.

At this point, Killington’s Brewfest scheduled for September 30, 2011 to October 1, 2011 is still on, but we’ll have to see how work progresses on the road and sewer repair. Killington Resort Lodging will begin accepting reservations on September 23, 2011.

It remains to be seen how this will truly affect the leaf peeping season which kicks off in three weeks. Bloomberg has a good article stating that there have already be a lot of cancellations just based on the images people are seeing on TV. The state is planning an ad campaign to start September 6, so we’ll have to hope that brings people to Vermont.

As Governor Shumlin told a group in Rutland on Wednesday about what he would tell tourists, “We’ve got enough roads to get around, and we’ve still got leaves on our tree. It might be goat paths instead of highways, but we can get you there.” (NY Times)