Good snow and the three-day Martin Luther King Day holiday weekend increased business at Sunlight Mountain Resort and the Glenwood Hot Springs Pool by nearly 50 percent over the weekend.

The holiday honoring the slain civil rights activist is providing a beneficial boost to January tourism, when visits are usually lower than later in the season.

“We definitely had a good Martin Luther King weekend,” said Sunlight marketing director Turi Nevin-Turkel.

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“It’s a nice holiday for us,” said John Bosco, assistant general manager at the Hot Springs Pool.

Martin Luther King Day, which this year was Monday, Jan. 20, is a paid holiday for state and federal workers, plus some school districts and counties around Colorado.

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Turkel said Sunlight had 1,072 skier visits on Monday, compared to 250 on the previous Monday, Jan. 13, and 623 on Martin Luther King Day in 2002.

The skiers and snowboarders were a mix of locals and out-of-town visitors.

“There were lots of people with passes, but also a lot of people coming to the ticket window,” Turkel said. “We were up across the board for the whole weekend.”

Turkel said Sunlight also benefited from eight inches of new snow over the past 10 days.

Martin Luther King Day weekend numbers keep on growing, Turkel said.

“If things keep going as they have been, our numbers will definitely be up from last year,” she said. “This weekend was a positive step.”

At the Hot Springs Pool, Bosco did not yet have a Monday attendance tally when contacted that day.

“But looking out my window, we had a pretty good day,” he said.

Compared to the weekend of Jan. 11-12, attendance at the pool on Jan. 18-19 was up about 40 percent, he said.

Bosco said business during the Martin Luther King Day weekend has definitely increased over the past few years.

The next three-day holiday weekend is Presidents’ Day on Feb. 15-17.

Contact Lynn Burton: 945-8515, ext. 534

lburton@postindependent.com