Resort Real Estate Sales Cool Off

What was that noise in the real estate office? It was the sound of the other shoe dropping. After months of immunity from the housing slowdown, resort real estate sales are slowing nationwide, and in some cases, projects are being stopped dead in their tracks for lack of construction financing. The Chateau at Heavenly is one example; it’s on hold even though the developer has invested $100 million into infrastructure and the city of South Lake Tahoe has a stake in the convention center that would be part of the complex. We’ve heard that some projects in Colorado are on hold as well. The slowdown could be with us for awhile: In the several real-estate-related seminars at the NSAA show, panelists variously pegged 2009, 2010, and 2011 as the turning point.


CSCUSA: And Then There Were 22

The withdrawal of Vail Resorts from Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA) has shaken up the association’s staff and reordered its priorities. VR’s departure shrunk CSCUSA’s budget from $3.5 million to $1.7 million. As a result, the organization is reducing its marketing efforts, and five marketing and communications staff lost their jobs, including respected marketer John Urdi. Still, the remaining 22 members are committed to keeping the organization as active as possible.

The irony is that VR pulled out after it and CSCUSA could not agree on changes sought by Vail--changes which included a reduced focus on marketing and increased attention to public policy issues. With the elevation of public policy director Melanie Mills to president of CSCUSA, it appears that the organization will indeed make many of the shifts VR sought.


Being Green: What Customers Expect

CSCUSA’s annual meeting was worth attending for more than the VR gossip. A panel of green marketers from Whole Foods, New Belgium Brewing, and Travelocity gave perspective on ski industry efforts and consumer response to green initiatives generally. The message: going green is a never-ending process. Guests will always expect more.

Whole Foods’ adoption of its “no plastic bag” policy is a case in point. Customers applauded the move for all of about 15 minutes. Then they asked, when will you get rid of paper bags? And what about all those plastic wrappers and containers elsewhere in the store? To mix a metaphor, banning the bags opened a can of worms.

Winter resorts face the same sort of rising expectations. Dave Belin of RRC Associates shared recent research on consumers’ green behavior and attitudes, which suggests that they expect more in the way of group transport and recycling from resorts than they are getting. More than eight in ten resort visitors are recycling paper and plastic, and a similar number are using energy-efficient lighting. Eighty-five percent claim that they carpool (that’s reasonable; who wants to ski or ride alone?); 85 percent of those who stay overnight reuse towels and turn off the lights when they leave the room. If you are doing less than they are at home, your other green efforts seem hollow.


New Faces in the Corner Office

The recent management upheavals at Mt. Bachelor and Crested Butte are unusual. Top managers seem to stay put for decades in the resort business. But this has been a year for change. At Bachelor, Dave Rathbun is taking over the top spot from Matt Janney. Rathbun’s most crucial task is to repair relations with the local Bend community--which are as bad as for any resort/town pairing in the country. Rathbun is leaving sister resort Killington (both areas are owned by Powdr Corp.), which has had its own local issues in the past year, so he’s familiar with the situation. In addition, at press time Bachelor was looking for new directors of marketing, operations, and food and beverage.

Crested Butte’s management change was still a work in progress at press time, but it, too, was looking for a new direction in leadership, and again, we suspect the move will be away from the operations background of longtime general manager Randy Barrett. Crested Butte is in the midst of gaining approval for its Snodgrass expansion, and it needs someone who can manage both that and relations with the politically engaged town at its base. Other key open management positions at press time were for snowsports school, mountain ops, and public relations.


A record Season! Why No celebration?

When NSAA announced a record resort visit total of 60.1 million at the convention, there was a brief hurrah and applause. Then everyone turned their focus to 2008-09. The lack of celebration showed just how cautious managers are as they look toward a full season of higher fuel costs and a weak economy.

There were caution signs even in the record number. For one, nearly all of the attendance gain, compared to the 2005-06 season, came from international visits, which were up one million from a year ago. For another, there were more day-trip visits than overnight stays for the first time in about 15 years. In one session late in the convention, RRC Associates’ Nate Fristoe explained that drop, saying that resort lodging costs have risen 66 percent since 2001, while personal incomes for 90 percent of the population have remained flat. Fewer people can afford overnight stays.

The influx of international guests, who tend to stay for longer periods, kept the overnight fall-off from being even greater than it was, and cushioned what was a less than stellar visit total, given the superb conditions that existed across most of the country for most of the season. So yes, reaching the 60-million milestone was a noteworthy achievement. But no one’s lost sight of the challenges ahead.


Skiing and Riding in June, Oh My!

Devotees, passholders, and other fanatics turned out in mid June when Willamette Pass, Ore., and Aspen, Colo., reopened for the weekend. About two hundred people showed up each day at Willamette, mostly passholders, but also folks from as far away as northern Washington and the Tahoe area. Many showed up to thank owner Tim Wiper for a great season and a super finale. The area had groomed a few runs and the corn was just about perfect.

In Aspen, about 4,000 rode the Silver Queen gondola over the weekend as Aspen began summer operations. The riders included sightseers and other tourists, as well as hundreds of snowsliders who took advantage of the three days of downhilling. Many locals showed up in costume “or the lack thereof,” says spokeswoman Meredith McKee. Visitors in town tended to favor jeans and rental gear; the resort shop sent out about 150 rental sets.


CNL Is Looking for a Few Good Areas

CNL Lifestyle Company, the REIT that owns 10 areas ranging from Sugarloaf, Maine, to Sierra-at-Tahoe, Calif., was a conspicuous gold sponsor of this year’s NSAA convention. For a simple reason: it’s hungry for more. In the meantime, it has been busy investing in its current properties, including day lodges at Brighton, Utah, and Cypress Mountain, B.C., site of several 2010 Olympic events, and a $25 million restoration of the Mt. Washington Hotel.

While some resorts may be experiencing funding difficulties, CNL has no such trouble. “We have raised more capital than we projected a year ago,” VP of investments Steve Rice told SAM at the NSAA show. Investors have faith in the company because it has “never failed to provide a return for our investors.” Bragger.


Is Snowboarding Really That Dangerous?

In a word: no. A recent, widely-publicized report on “outdoor injuries” suggested that 26 percent of those treated in emergency rooms were snowboarders. When we heard that, we were dubious. We thought, “better call Jake Shealy and find out what’s really happening.”

When we reached him, the longtime injury researcher quickly explained the anomaly. First, he said, the study measured wilderness-related injuries, not all outdoor incidents, and so excluded most cycling injuries (which, he estimates, account for about 75 percent of all outdoor sports visits to emergency rooms). Second, the study looked at statistics from mostly-urban emergency rooms, and so missed most ski injuries--as well as many other wilderness incidents, in fact. Shealy believes that snowboarding truly accounts for about 5 percent of emergency visits. Why the report picked up a much higher incidence is a mystery.

Even so, Shealy pointed out, snowboarding has twice the injury rate of skiing. And that’s a mystery, too. Terrain parks are not the answer, he said--there are now as many skiers in parks as riders, and their injury rates are similar. We hesitate to say it, but--it seems more research is needed.