Lured by lots of cheap tickets, skiers shrugged off terrorism alerts, war talk, a weak economy, faltering stock market, airline turmoil, last year’s poor snow in some areas and lingering post-9/11 travel jitters to push early season pass sales to record levels.
“We sold out of our discounted season passes one day earlier than last year—and last year was the earliest we had sold out to that point,” said Karyn Blanco, marketing coordinator at Mountain High in southern California.
“The season pass wars, especially on the south side of Lake Tahoe between Kirkwood, Sierra and Heavenly are tremendously hot,” said Tim Cohee, president and general manager at Kirkwood, Calif., where pass sales were on track to exceed last year’s record.
But if steep discounts are motivating skiers to purchase their lift tickets earlier than ever, skiers are holding back on making actual reservations to come ski.
“The booking window is shrinking to 45 or 60 days out for the major holiday periods,” said Gina Kroft, marketing director at Crested Butte, Colo., where season pass sales are flat and holiday reservations were just starting to come in in early October.
“We’ve noticed for a couple of years now that people are booking later,” said Joan O’Neill, marketing director at Crystal Mt., Mich., where sales of its discounted season pass were up 20 percent over last year’s record despite a slight price increase.
Group reservations, especially corporate groups and ski clubs—a reflection of the weak economy—were also down at many resorts. “Our conference business definitely suffered last season after September 11,” said Jane Eshbaugh, marketing director at Holiday Valley, NY. “It’s still down but just starting to pick up some.” Eshbaugh said season pass sales, however, are way up over last year’s record. Holiday reservations are also strong.
More family groups have helped some areas like Crystal offset the drop in ski club and corporate business. “Because of the increase in families, our ski groups are actually doing quite well despite the drop in ski clubs,” O’Neill said.
In general, the drive-to resorts continued to show the biggest increases among the early season indicators. “Sometimes we benefit when people have to downsize a little bit,” Eshbaugh noted.
“I hate to say it, but as tragic as 9/11 was, our sales last year were great,” said Carl Kerstetter, marketing director at Blue Ridge Companies, owners of Jack Frost and Big Boulder, Penn.
Early pass sales this year at the two areas were running more than 50 percent ahead of last year at the same point. “The economy may force people to shop a little wiser,” he said. “We held the line or reduced our pricing in most areas.”
Countering the “cheap ticket” trend, Okemo, Vt., reported sales of its discounted midweek passes were flat, but sales of its full priced, unrestricted passes were up 28 percent over last year. Holiday reservations “are around where we were at this time last year,” said Pam Cruickshank, Okemo marketing director. At sister area, Sunapee, N.H., all season pass products were about 10 percent ahead of last year’s record.
At Granite Peak, Wis., three hours outside Chicago, season pass sales were up 30 to 40 percent over last year, according to owner Charles Skinner, Jr. “As a Midwest destination area our patterns of visitors are much more steady than a destination resort you have to fly to,” he said.
Vail Resorts chairman Adam Aron had very much that same thought in mind when he wrote to employees at the company’s five resorts (Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Breckenridge and Heavenly). The lengthy letter, dated September 11, 2002, enumerated the many challenges facing the company this season.
“Terrorism, war, recession, difficulty in traveling by air, drought—now that is one depressing combination,” Aron wrote. Vail would not release any early season numbers.
In Utah, the outlook is mixed. “We’re not getting as much of an Olympic bounce as we might have hoped for, but we are getting a lot of early snow which is helping us get national media attention,” said David Fields, communications manager at Snowbird. “Areas are discounting more and it could be a record year for season pass sales. Reservations are on par with two years ago which was a record year. Call volume is up.”
Mountain High, Calif., which hosts a chat room on its website, noted that the number of “threads” or topics being discussed has increased.
“I check on that daily,” said Blanco. “People are talking about new equipment, what resorts they’re going to be at this winter. It seems like people are going to be doing a lot more traveling. Everybody seems pretty excited.”
But as Fields noted, early season indicators are just that: early and just indicators. “Sooner or later you’ve got to get the lifts turning,” he says.
And for that we need to turn to the weather indicators.
