Jun. 11--Colorado is not a charred landscape of diseased deer stumbling through bone-dry riverbeds surrounded by flaming trees. No matter what the governor says. 

State tourism leaders and businesses on Monday wrestled their biggest foe: the perception that Colorado is aflame. That's on top of the long-reported news that the state is in the throes of the driest summer in several decades and addled with diseased ruminants. 

That fiery perception was cemented on Sunday when Gov. Bill Owens compared the latest round of devastating Colorado wildfires to a "nuclear winter," before proclaiming that "all of Colorado is on fire today." 

"Our No. 1 hurdle? Gov. Owens saying that the whole state is on fire," said Jenna MacGregor, head of marketing for Estes Valley Resorts, which runs three properties near Rocky Mountain National Park. 

"I've had 32 cancellations today because of that statement," MacGregor said. "After he went out two months ago and tried to support the tourism industry in Colorado, now he just hurt us big time." 

Owens spokesman Dan Hopkins said the governor spent most of Monday and will spend all of today on national news programs urging people to visit Colorado. But he won't understate the dangers. 

"He feels he has a responsibility and a duty to communicate in the strongest way possible the real danger of this situation," Hopkins said. 

Owens hosted an economic summit of the state's leading tourism businesses last fall. He also supported state funding for the Colorado Tourism Office two years ago, reviving state funding for tourism promotion for the first time since voters nixed the tourism tax in 1992. 

"One of the things the governor did not cut when he was making other budget cuts that were somewhat controversial was tourism funding because he believes that tourism is so critical," Hopkins said. 

Still, plenty of tourism business folk lamented Owens' assessment of eight fires around the state, which have wreaked little long-term havoc on tourism business. 

"That was absolutely unbelievable that anyone would say that," said Mike Bandera, vice president of Royal Gorge Bridge & Park in Canon City.

"He is literally killing me. Tens of thousands of dollars he's costing me," said Ray Kitson, owner of American Adventure Expeditions and another rafting company in the Arkansas River Valley, making him the state's largest rafting outfitter. "Take my situation and multiply it by 65 outfitters in the valley." 

With the annual FIBArk boating festival coming to Salida this weekend, Kitson was braced for what is usually his busiest week of reservation bookings all year. Instead he sent employees home, the phones silent. 

"We usually do $50,000 in reservations today, the Monday before FIBArk. We've done $6,000. We were doing well before he opened his mouth," Kitson said. 

The fires marching through Colorado forests are the latest hurdle for Colorado's tourism industry. The Colorado Tourism Office, meeting in Colorado Springs on Monday, launched an emergency meeting between office staff and Praco, the advertising firm handling the state's tourism promotion campaign. 

"It's a beautiful day in Colorado Springs and we need to be able to share that with the rest of the world. Colorado is open for business," said Sarah MacQuiddy, chairwoman of the Colorado Tourism Office board. 

There was some good news at the board's meeting on Tuesday. The state's annual Longwoods International study revealed a 4 percent boost in leisure travel to Colorado in 2001. 

That's proof that Colorado has a lot to offer and its appeal can overcome significant obstacles, said Will Seccombe, the vice president of Praco who oversees the state's tourism campaign. 

"We've got an incredibly strong product and that isn't changing," said Seccombe, pointing to Colorado's growth in leisure business despite the economic troubles last year and the attacks of Sept. 11. 

"We are fortunate to have such a strong brand. Even with a difficult and trying year last year, we had a very good year." 

Three-quarters of all the calls coming in to the Georgetown Loop and Royal Gorge Route railroads on Monday were potential vacationers wondering if the entire state was really on fire, said the railroads' co-owner, Mark Greksa. 

"Obviously, he made it in the heat of the moment, so to speak," Greksa said of Owens' statement. "He meant it figuratively and tourists are taking it literally." 

While there is certainly fire trouble in Colorado, tourism leaders are quick to point out that only 1 percent of the state's 77 million acres is burning and the remaining 99 percent is ready to host myriad play. 

"Tourism is the state's No. 1 industry and there are plenty of places to go," said Rich Grant, spokesman for the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, noting that every hotel room in downtown Denver is presently rented to more than 7,000 delegates at the J.D. Edwards convention. 

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