Vail and Aspen Colorado have long been a favorite vacation and second home spot for Celebrities and wealthy Americans. A new group of foreigners has set their sites on Vail and Aspen, wanting a piece of Colorado’s luxury resorts. This group, already familiar with the cold, comes from Russia.
The Russian millionaires and billionaires have come to the Vail and Aspens dressed in designer clothes and fur coats. Aspen especially historically has lots of foreign visitors and they are excited about the Russians coming to visit. They indulge themselves in high priced hotel rooms, dinner’s at the most expensive restaurants and lots of shopping. The estimate is around $100,000 for a one week vacation. What’s really amazing is that compared to prices for everything in Russia, the prices for things in Vail and Aspen are “cheap” to them.
Thanks to the oil and gas industry, Russia’s economy is booming. There are approximately 103,000 millionaires and 53 billionaires. That is an increase from twenty years ago of 103,000 and 53, so twenty years ago there were no millionaires or billionaires in Russia.
Aspen began a marketing campaign a couple years ago in Russia and this year will see over 500 visitors. Vail is seeing similar numbers of visitors this year up from about 150 a couple years ago, which marks the fastest growing segment of visitors to Vail and Aspen. Since the end of the cold war, Russians have been visiting Europe and tasting luxury over there and they are now ready for something new. And why are the selecting Colorado, the cold reminds them of home and the Russian government is working hard to promote skiing in Russia especially after winning the bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Not all are ready to welcome them with open arms. Some resort workers complain the Russians are rude, treat the employees very badly and are always late.
But most are excited about Vail and Aspens new found group of wealthy. The extremely wealthy, prefer Aspen, it is considered more of a celebrity type atmosphere. Vail is more substantial being the home of the more low key business type. Both towns are revered because they feel they can walk around freely, like the celebrities without being noticed or harassed. In Russia they are basically kept in security cars.
Whichever resort either Vail or Aspen they prefer, one thing is certain, the elite in Russia like the luxury Colorado ski resorts and the resorts are very excited about their new class of visitors. The real estate is cheap to them also so it is expected that there will be a growing amount of the scarce high end properties bought by this new wealthy that is hunger for the American lifestyle.
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