Halftime Huddle: Tourism, Ski Industry Execs Assemble at SIA Show

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06 February 2015

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SAM Magazine—Denver, Colo., Feb. 6, 2015—Nearly 400 mountain tourism and ski industry executives from destinations spanning North America convened Jan. 28 at the SIA Snow Show as part of The Assembly, a one-day forum that presents both a fact-based and knowledge-based assessment of the 2014-15 season at the midway point and identifies emerging growth opportunities in the mountain travel industry.

In the opening State of the Industry general session, association executives and industry researchers presented season-to-date figures ski and snowboard visitation and demographic trends, mountain lodging revenues and reservations, and retail sales. Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association, said continued drought conditions in California have the season on track to match last season’s 56. 2 million skier and snowboarder visits.

Lodging revenues at 19 mountain resorts in six Western states are up 15 percent over last season while occupancy is up 9 percent, according to Tom Foley, director of operations for Denver-based DestiMetrics. The data reflect aggregated occupancy based on reservations already made through April.

Meanwhile the snow sports retail market set a record holiday selling season, posting $2.2 billion in sales by the end of December, according to Emily Rees, market researcher for SIA. Equipment sales were up 6 percent to $541 million, apparel sales were up 7 percent to $985 million, and accessory sales were up 15 percent to $734 million during that same time period.

Looking forward, Bill Jensen, former CEO of Intrawest, gave an overall health assessement of 470 U.S. ski areas based on their EBITA, access to capital, maintenance investments, and the economics and demographics of their local communities. Jensen said 150 ski areas are in the "sunset of their existence" and estimated that 6 to 8 million skiers and snowboarder visits are potentially at stake. He called on larger, healthier resorts to ally with smaller, threatened ski areas in order to maintain the overall health of the industry and participation in the sport.

Brent Bellm, president and COO of HomeAway, spoke about trends in vacation accommodations, saying that there are now more available beds in vacation homes in the U.S. than there are in hotels or resorts, particularly in mountain destinations. He said about 75 percent of Americans say they will consider renting their home short-term sometime during their course of ownership.

Donna Carpenter, president of Burton Snowboards, provided an overview of her company's efforts to be inclusive of women both in the corporate offices and on the slopes. “It’s very hard to be innovative if everyone around the table has the same background, and the same experience, and is coming at the sport from the same perspective,” she said. “I always say my job will be done when 50 percent of our leadership is women, 50 percent of our participants are women, and 50 percent of our sales are to women.”

In other sessions, SAM editor Rick Kahl led a roundtable discussion on on-mountain summer activities at ski areas. David Becher, senior research analyst with RRC Associates and Kent Sharp, principal of the SE Group, outlined the economics of summer activities and the related demographics and generatable revenues.

Also Ian Arthur, virtual CMO of Chief Outsiders and a former marketing executive for Intrawest, led several sessions including an outlook on destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and the recent shift of these organizations going from public to private entities. GoBreck (now the Breckenridge Tourism Office) is one of the most recent DMOs to make this transformation. Lucy Kay, president and CEO, outlined the internal processes and overall benefits of making the move to becoming a private organization.

Corey Ryan, principal of Ryan Solutions, led a session on data-driven decision making, and Trevor Crist, CEO of Inntopia, spoke of emerging lodging distribution channels and the challenges of keeping up with supply and demand.

The Assembly 2015 included 19 educational sessions in all. See the full lineup at http://assembly.destimetrics.com/agenda/.