The Ants Are Back!

May this not discourage anybody from visiting Moab this weekend, but…

We’re being loved to death. It started two years ago, after the Moab Area Travel Council launched a nationwide advertising strategy to increase tourism in the canyon country. It worked. Well, I agree we’re living in a very picturesque and unique place, and visual advertising is especially effective in this area. I’ve been selling web pages to businesses here for 21 years so it’s no secret that pictures sell. But it’s worked too well. Time to back off.

Two years ago, that memorable and fateful Memorial Day weekend caused the Utah Highway Patrol to close the entrance to Arches National Park because the lines of cars were a traffic hazard. The latest newspaper quotes the UHP to expect 45 minutes to cross town – about three miles. [click here for story].

Well, apparently the Travel Council is still pumping 2.7 million dollars a year into ads. Apparently we don;’t have enough traffic yet. Is it time to back off? Or does the adventure-thirsty public entitled to their day in traffic?

It’s ironic that all those people want one thing. A little solitude in the backscape so close yet so far away.

PS: As I write this, a semi truck drives down our obvious residential street. Not appropriate! This is the first and definitely not the last I’ve seen in this neighborhood.