Vail: explaining growth dynamics of a Colorado Ski Resort Town

ABSTRACT Vail Valley with two large ski areas, Vail and Beaver Creek, has become one of the most highly recognized tourist destination areas in Colorado. Vail and Beaver were awarded to host the World Alpine Ski Championships in 1989, 1999 and 2015. Vail’s transformation from a small attractive ski area with an alpine inspired village to an upscale four-season resort environment along an urbanized corridor of 50 miles (70 km) is shown with comparative data. In a close-up section, the growth and change of The Town of Vail is reconstructed from the 1960s to 2010. The tourist area life cycle model, the path metaphor in evolutionary economic geography and the concept of resilience are applied to explaining the growth dynamics in Vail Valley. Vail Resorts as a leading agent of change in the further globalization of the ski resort industry has at last embraced sustainability.