Tourism is a cornerstone of Colorado’s prosperity, and the hotel industry — which relies on an annual procession of conventions, conferences and many other events — plays a pivotal role. The industry pays $4 billion a year in wages and salaries to more than 98,000 employees along the Front Range, across the Rockies and throughout the state. It contributes $6 billion a year to the state’s economy and generates $1 billion annually in state and local taxes.

But that’s in a typical year — and this is no typical year. Amid a global pandemic and Colorado’s response to it, the industry is in deep trouble. It is hemorrhaging revenue. It also is being forced to dramatically cut its work force. So, rent and mortgage payments are in jeopardy, as are utility bills and groceries for working families of modest means statewide.

The state’s hotels report losing $660 million in earnings since the arrival of COVID-19, according to a Colorado Hotel and Association survey — and that’s just at the 53 resorts that responded. Those businesses project losing another $456 million in the near term. As a result, tens of millions of dollars are lost in tax revenue to the state.

Meanwhile, the same hotels report furloughing nearly 5,000 employees so far and permanently terminating another 2,200. And that’s probably just the canary in the coal mine; it is a distinct possibility hotels could start shutting down temporarily and in some cases, even forever.

The outlook is dire, but our state’s policy makers — particularly Gov. Jared Polis — can help turn things around. We hope the governor will act because he can make a big difference.

The virus itself isn’t the highest hurdle to the hotels’ survival. To be sure, COVID has taken its toll, not only on the public’s health but also its willingness to travel and participate in wide-ranging conferences, conventions, festivals and the like. Yet, representatives of the industry tell us demand has returned to the event-tourism sector, if not to pre-COVID levels. Those gatherings are a crucial part of many larger hotels’ business.

The biggest threat to the industry’s recovery are the state’s unrealistic restrictions on the events that are the bread and butter of a lot of the hotels. Alongside that, the industry desperately needs a longer-term understanding with the state — a state-sanctioned designation specific to hotels — that would free them to make future bookings.

For some time now, the hotels have been hindered from making deals for major meeting-based bookings because they can offer no assurances an event even will be able to take place. The hotels need, as one industry representative told us, a “path forward” to provide clarity to an industry that by its nature must book and then plan for events a year or more in the future.

It is a highly competitive industry, and Colorado is rapidly losing its edge, and its market, to locales in other states that have more realistic COVID restrictions in place. Population centers like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas; coastal convention destinations such as South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, and even Colorado neighbors Oklahoma and Wyoming allow more leeway for group gatherings.

Several of those states have comparable COVID incidence rates to Colorado’s — though of course the statistics in this pandemic continue to be a moving target — and as of last week, Pennsylvania’s and Washington’s were even lower.

Significantly, Colorado’s hotel industry simply isn’t a spreader of the virus in the first place. Its incidence at hotels in the state has been extremely low and continues to be. There have been only 21 individual COVID cases at four hotels — out of more than 1,300 hotels statewide.

The hotel association has reached out to the Polis administration with a proposal for more practical limits on event sizes that allow them to function while still adhering to meaningful distancing. The association says it is open to negotiation in working to find a workable solution. The hotels also understand the need for the state to hit a “pause button” on any such agreement in the event of COVID flare-ups. But they need a practical framework.

The governor took time on Friday to discuss the issue with The Gazette’s editorial board. While he reaffirmed his commitment to lowering Colorado’s COVID numbers for the good of the state’s economy overall, he expressed concern for the hotels, acknowledging, “The event side of the industry has been hit much harder” than some other aspects of the tourist trade.

“If there is demand for events…we in Colorado want to be the host of those events,” Polis said. He assured us he will reach out to the hotels.

“I’m sure we’ll be able to work through any differences,” he said. “I’ll be on a call with them in the next few days.”

Sounds hopeful, and we’ll stay tuned.

Our state’s hotel industry needs a workable solution now.