“Like a lot of Americans I have been relying on faith in trying to figure out what’s next,” said Chip Perfect, vice president and general manager at Perfect North Slopes, Ind. Perfect was attending an industry meeting on the East Coast when the terrorists attacked. Like many that day, the participants ended their meeting and headed home.
“We all wanted to get home; the sooner the better,” Perfect said. “Fortunately, we had a rental car and made the drive all the way back to the Midwest.”
The desire to be with family and friends seems to be a common sentiment among many Americans in the wake of the tragedy. Those sentiments, in fact, may help the ski industry convince a still grieving and jittery nation that it’s OK to travel and have fun.
“The public’s fear of flying and not wanting to be in danger are balanced out, I think, by two other factors in our favor,” says David Perry, CEO of Colorado Ski Country USA. “First, skiers and boarders are a resilient sector of the population; more so than average. They’re more adventurous and less willing to sacrifice an important part of their lifestyle. Another factor in our favor that we’re seeing emerge in the wake of the attacks is people’s desire to spend time with family and friends, to get the family together this Thanksgiving, for Christmas, President’s Day and go for a winter vacation. People are focusing on priorities and being close to family and friends is a higher priority for many. I think doing things like skiing and taking a ski vacation will benefit from that sentiment to a degree.”
While the ski industry, like most other industries, came to a virtual standstill in the days following the attacks, business has resumed to near normal or above normal levels, say many.
“A large segment of our business is meetings and conferences, and we experienced several group cancellations as a result of the attacks,” said Bob Bonar, president and COO at Snowbird, Utah. “Fortunately, many of these groups are re-booking for later in the fall.”
At Mount Sunapee, N.H., General Manager Jay Gamble said season pass sales year-to-date were ahead of last year, despite a dropoff the week of the attacks. “Sales for the week ending 9/23 were very strong,” he said. “We’re continuing to monitor budgets very closely, as usual, to see that expenses are controlled.”
At Hunter Mountain, N.Y., where the majority of customers are from metropolitan New York, June Brinkman, sales and marketing director, said a beer, wine and food festival the second weekend after the attacks was one of the best attended since its inception several years ago.
“The mood of the customers was positive,” Brinkman said. “Comments overheard were, ‘We really needed to get out of the city for the weekend.’ We also understand that a local ski shop had one of its most successful September sales in a long time that weekend with lots of customers spending money on equipment. We haven’t seen any drop in season pass sales or season locker rentals.”
Perfect said the phones stopped ringing at Perfect North Slopes the week of the tragedy, but as of the end of September season pass sales were substantially ahead of last year’s record pace.
While the public may be ready to recreate this winter, it’s still not clear how far they are willing to travel for a vacation.
“Our reservation department is receiving a lot of calls from people who say they are changing their plans to travel to destinations like Mexico and the Caribbean and instead are electing to have a family vacation closer to home,” said Barry Godwin, marketing director at Shanty Creek, Mich.
“The economic slowdown may have a similar impact on where people choose to go for a ski vacation,” says Perfect. “Urban day ski areas have typically been strong in slower economies because people tend to recreate closer to home and more on the spur of the moment.”
The public’s reluctance to fly in the aftermath of the attacks, coupled with the slowing economy and huge cutbacks by the airlines has large destination ski resorts admittedly worried.
“Last year, Colorado had 11.7 million skier visits, and 63 percent of them were from out of state and the vast majority of them got here by flying,” Perry said. “Certainly, we’re watching what happens with the airlines very carefully. What the winter schedules will be is not yet clear from the airlines. But a lot of flights into Colorado are into regional airports and mountain communities. Those are high-load flights in the winter and, in many cases, have flight revenue guarantees from the communities. It seems unlikely the airlines would want to drop a route that has guaranteed revenue.”
Whether the public will still be too shaken to fly in large numbers again this winter remains to be seen. But, so far, no one is changing course.
“I think we’re all optimistic,” Perfect said. “Ski operators are that way by nature. As is the case with everyone in this industry, our customers are doers, not watchers.”
