As snow is to the ski industry, water is to the rafting industry — tourism dollars follow both.

Skiers obviously like snow, which was found in record amounts this winter at Colorado ski resorts, and skier visits were up as a result.

And boaters obviously like water, which is expected to continue roaring down Colorado’s rivers well into summer this year.

“We anticipate having a record season this year, particularly with the water we’re going to have,” said Kevin Schneider of Rock Gardens Rafting in Glenwood Springs. “And the key for us with all this snowpack is that it extends the quality of the season for us. It will keep water in the river all summer.”

A record 539,000 people went on a commercial raft trip in Colorado in 2007, according to the Colorado Rivers Outfitters Association, or CROA, which is bullish on the industry’s stance heading into summer 2008.

“2007 marks the final stage of recovery (from) the industry’s damaging blows in 2002 as a result of record-breaking drought, wildfires and the effects of 9/11,” the CROA’s annual year-end report stated.

And this season’s water levels should be the highest, and most sustained, in years, which means more tourism spending.

The longer the rafting season, the more rafting trips sold and the more gas, gear, meals, beer and lodging rafters buy.

On the day of their rafting trip, visitors are estimated to each have spent $111. That added up to $60 million in direct spending by rafters in 2007, which in turn had a broader economic impact of $153 million, according to CROA.

Professor John Loomis at Colorado State University reported in an economic study this January that the $54 million in direct rafting expenditures in 2006 supported 2,600 direct and indirect jobs in Colorado and provided $38 million in income, including wages, rents and business profits.

In his study, Loomis was primarily looking at whether slightly increasing “instream flows” in the state’s rivers, which has an environmental benefit, would also attract more rafters and anglers to Colorado’s rivers.

His conclusion was that it would, and that more water brings more money.

“Slightly increasing flows would generate another 200 jobs and $3 million in income annually from commercial rafting and related sectors in Colorado,” Loomis wrote.

Bigger water, shorter rides?

But what about significantly increasing flows, as will likely happen this spring and summer in Colorado?

Reached via e-mail in his Fort Collins office, Loomis wrote that “high water should be good for most rafting and kayaking. Perhaps some of the short and beginner ‘runs’ may be problematic with high water if it makes rapids too big, or the water moves so fast that what is normally a two-hour trip is now a one-hour trip. But expert rafters and kayakers should love it.

“If the water comes down gradually it will extend the season as well.

“Angling may be a bit tough at the high water, but again, if it comes down slowly, it might make good fishing later in the season when it would normally be low water,” Loomis wrote.

In his report, Loomis put a more scholarly spin on why more water in the river is good for the tourism economy.

“For rafters, higher flows often increase the size of rapids, as well as speed of travel, thus requiring less rowing,” Loomis wrote. “All of these factors increase the enjoyment or what economists call utility. At a given trip cost determined by travel distance to the river, the higher utility, the more trips the visitor wishes to take. As trips increase with higher flows, additional rafter expenditures go into the tourism sector of the state economy.”

Or, the more fun you are having on the river, the more money you are spending in town.

And lucky for the towns of Glenwood Springs and Aspen, there are fun rivers close by.

The Brown’s Canyon section of the Arkansas River, just over Independence Pass from Aspen, and the Shoshone section of the Colorado River, just east of Glenwood Springs, are the two busiest sections in the state for commercial raft companies.

Those two rivers, combined with the Roaring Fork River, make commercial boating a small but healthy element in the tourism economies of both Glenwood Springs and Aspen.

Arkansas River set record in 2000

The Arkansas River is the main arena for the state’s commercial rafting business, with 239,887 commercial user days in 2007 on the entire length of the river from the Pine Creek section through to the dramatic Royal Gorge.

A user day is counted by each individual who pays to raft.

The record year for the Arkansas was 2000, when it saw 250,861 user days.

Local rafting companies Blazing Paddles  and Aspen Whitewater both run trips on the Arkansas and are joined by companies from Vail, Summit County and towns along the Arkansas River, including Buena Vista and Salida.

The next busiest stretch in the state is the Shoshone section of the Colorado River, which posted a record 65,502 user days in 2007.

CROA’s annual report notes that the 2007 record may hold for a while as “growth through Glenwood Canyon is expected to slow due to limits being imposed on commercial outfitters,” presumably by U.S. Forest Service officials, which issue outfitter guide permits for that section of river.

Shoshone’s use grew in 2005 in part because of “efforts by Vail to ramp up the summer season and the generally improving economy of the West Slope,” according to CROA’s 2006 report.

Blazing Paddles runs Shoshone, as do many other companies, including Rock Gardens, Blue Sky Adventures, Glenwood Canyon Rafting, Whitewater Rafting and Up Tha Creek "with a paddle,", all based in Glenwood Springs, and Timberline Tours and Lakota Guides, both based in the Vail Valley.

Blazing, Rock Gardens, Blue Sky Adventures and Glenwood Canyon Rafting all share a common take-out located river right behind the Dairy Queen in West Glenwood.

Whitewater Rafting has a take-out just downriver on the left side of the river.

Other commercial companies use Two Rivers Park in Glenwood Springs as a take-out.

The Roaring Fork River saw about 3,000 user days in 2007.

Blazing Paddles, Aspen Whitewater and Up Tha Creek run the Slaughterhouse section of the Fork just below Aspen in May and June, and Blazing runs the majority of the trips on the Fork through the Toothache section from Woody Creek to Wingo Junction, just above Basalt.

The lower section of the Fork, known as the Cemetery run, is also popular with Glenwood Springs rafting companies, especially as it gives them a fun alternative when the rapids in Shoshone get too big.

The local rafting companies have an informal agreement not to run Shoshone when it climbs above 6,000 cubic feet per second due to safety concerns and prefer to run it when the river is running about 2,500 to 3,500 cfs through Glenwood Canyon, as it has been this week.

New Whitewater Park

Also adding to the local river economy this summer will be the new Glenwood Springs Kayak Whitewater Park in West Glenwood, which was formed this winter by placing a line of rocks in the river to create waves for kayakers to surf and play on.

The buzz in local online boating forums is that the waves formed by the newly placed rocks in the river have in fact created fun “holes” for kayakers.

The Web site for the whitewater park has a photo posted of the recently completed park and notes that, “The hole on river left/center is forceful but not overly retentive. The boat chute on the river right has formed a nice front surf wave with a small pile good for low-angle blunts and flat spins.”

The new park should draw plenty of curious kayakers from around the state this summer to check it out.

The Glenwood Kayak store is also likely to benefit from more kayakers coming to town. It is in a new location on Midland Avenue in West Glenwood, close to the new whitewater park.

There is one other confluence of events that might help the local boating economy this summer, and that’s an expected increase in summer tourism to Colorado.

According to the Colorado Tourism Office, 2007 was a record year for tourism and early indicators look good for a strong 2008.

Web site traffic to Colorado.com is up 14 percent and requests for visitor guides were up 47 percent in the first three months of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007, the Colorado Tourism Office reports.

Kevin Schneider of Rock Gardens Rafting also operates Glenwood Canyon Resort in No Name, a riverside park with cabins, camping spots and RV spots just upriver from downtown Glenwood.

He said he feels the state’s spending on tourism marketing is starting to pay off.

“Our reservations for cabins and RV sites are higher than normal,” Schneider said.

And soon, the water will be too.