As we enter the final days of summer, it’s time to sum up the season. And, for local hotels, attractions and tourism officials, there’s not much to say but that it could have been worse.

“We’re going to end up quite a bit down for the year, but that’s just because the eight or 10 most important days of the summer, we were roasting marshmallows,” said Grant Carey, general manager of the Cave of the Winds, which was especially hard hit by the Waldo Canyon fire because of its proximity to the fire’s starting point.

After a promising start to the tourism season, the fire shut down attractions and dissuaded travelers during what should have been the peak weeks of summer. Hotel occupancy rates were down about 15 percent in July, compared to July 2011, although the comparison likely looks worse because last year was the region’s best in more than a decade.

“Things are starting to come back,” said Steve Ducoff, executive director of the Pikes Peak Lodging Association. “I think ‘flat’ is a good term.”

The Broadmoor took a big hit during and after the fire, said Dennis Lesko, the hotel’s vice president of marketing, but several large groups that initially canceled meetings rescheduled them to later in the year.

“Because of the good pickup in October and the groups recovering, I think we’ll still be OK by year’s end,” Lesko said. “If we’re very blessed and fortunate, we’ll make budget, but that’s going to be it this year.”

In the weeks since the fire, tourism has come back to some degree, but not enough to offset the financial damage.

“I would say they dribbled rather than bounced back,” said Michele Starling, executive director of the Pikes Peak Country Attractions Association. “We will limp out of this year.”

The story was much the same around the region. Tom Cooper, Cripple Creek’s director of tourism operations, said the city had just started to recover from the fire when a sinkhole on Highway 67 shut down tourism again. Traffic was off about 2,000 visitors in July at the Cripple Creek Heritage Center, Cooper said.

“I don’t think it was disastrous, but it was just not good,” he said. “It’s a week’s business at the peak time of year. That’s really hard on most businesses.”

Cave of the Winds’ Carey had opened a new zip line ride just before the fire shut his attraction down. Carey, however, kept his spirits up.

“The summer’s great,” he said. “Considering we had to live through a fire, considering we had to live through a mud slide, I think we fared very well.”

In late July, the Colorado Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau launched a $200,000 ad blitz, which will continue until October, to attempt to restore the region’s luster in travelers’ eyes. Last week, the CVB also received a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration in part to expand its “Welcome Back” campaign.

“The CVB knew how important is was to help move the needle in a positive direction for the end of summer season in a time when we wouldn’t normally spend dollars on print and online advertising,” said Chelsy Murphy, public relations manager for the CVB. “We also felt a campaign right now was important to leave a lasting image of beauty in people’s minds rather than fire and other attention grabbing headlines.”

Leslie Lewis, director of the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau, said a strong fall would leave everyone feeling better about the year.

“We’re putting together a campaign right now that will run in the Denver area next month,” she said. “We’re going to pray for snow this winter and then pray for rain next spring.”

The Waldo Canyon fire burns on the north ridge above U.S. Highway 24 near Green Mountain Falls in this June 26 photo. After a promising start to the tourism season, the fire shut down attractions and dissuaded travelers during what should have been the peak weeks of summer. Photo by CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE

Christian murdock

Nelson Roseland and Dianne Perea rode the new “Bat-a-Pult” ride at the Cave of the Winds on its opening day June 22. Photo by MARK REIS, THE GAZETTE