The Ketchum-area chamber of commerce estimates winter is being kind to the Wood River Valley.
Carol Waller, executive director of the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber & Visitors' Bureau, presented to the Ketchum City Council Monday an encouraging report of the fiscal year's first quarter, October to December 2005.
"We had a strong fall," Waller said. "We're having a good winter. We have been lucky this year to have good snow and we have been working hard to market that."
A shift in the way visitors book travel is resulting in a change to some of the statistics the chamber keeps track of, Waller said.
Calls to central reservations have dipped, while direct Web site visits increased 100 percent over last January.
"We have more and more people going through the Web site," she said. "It's a function of how people are booking travel now."
The chamber's Web site, www.visitsunvalley.com, averaged 49,000 hits per month, Waller reported.
Waller said she was encouraged by the number of visitors—41 percent—who had never been to Ketchum/Sun Valley before.
"I'd like to think our marketing has something to do with that," she said.
She also told the council that the First Tracks promotion, which had a "lukewarm" return, would be followed by a Last Tracks campaign.
"We're trying to keep (the mountain) open until April 16," she said. "That would bring in another three weeks of business."
A new event, Jazz on the Green, is slated for one night weekly in summer at Warm Springs Village, Waller said, adding that chair lifts at the Warm Springs base of Bald Mountain would be running on Saturday and Sunday from July 4 through Labor Day.
She noted that locals are beginning to find the relocated visitors' center on Washington Avenue, in part due to the many people who bought tickets there for a celebration in honor of Sun Valley Resort owners Earl and Carol Holding.
Waller also announced that the Spring Prom event would be held April 1 and the Community Awards night is set for April 14.
The quarterly report states that tourism drives one-third of Blaine County's economy—and more for Ketchum and Sun Valley.
