Vermont Skier Visits 2018-2019

[Bubba]

Back over 4 million

https://vermontbiz.com/news/2019/june/0 ... -286700865" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Vermont ski areas saw 207K more skier and rider visits this season than last, an increase of 5.2 percent. This season’s 4,178,533 total skier/rider visits were the most since the 2014-15 season and 1.2-percent higher than the 10-year average seen by the state’s ski areas."

[Mister Moose]

And you may ask yourself, "Did the World Cup bring in more skiers?
And you may ask yourself, "Didn't the stronger economy bring more days per skier?"
And you may ask yourself, "Didn't cheaper gas prices help?"

[GSKI]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-_PC6TlIhs&t=2253s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[hillbangin]

It's all the economy.

And that was a year with a train wreck xmas

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[freeski]

It's because Vermont has a reputation for great skiing, good food and drink and the mountains and quaint little towns are vacationy,

Many of the families from central N.H. are going west instead of East to Maine. This is a small sample butt, it seems to be true.

N.H. Wood Chuck
OUT

[RustyK]

And I thought they would all go to okemo...

[hillbangin]

Blue bubble vs orange bubble

I like the blue.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[liv4ski]

There are skiers at the bottom of the hill.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[da Pimp]

This is interesting:
"1.2-percent higher than the 10-year average seen by the state’s ski areas."

That 10 year average includes some dismal seasons. 1.2% basically means Vermont had an average season for attendance.

But this season included a great early start, several large timely snowfalls for the holiday periods, and no big thaw period. To get only 1.2% more people means something else was working to hurt attendance. With three big positive influences, I would have expected better numbers than hitting a 10 year average.

So for us Killington fans - where do we sit relative to that 1.2% increase over the average? I think K did much better than +1.2%. Starting on Oct. 19, going to June 2, having snow for the holiday periods, new chairs going on line, I think K did a lot better than the rest of Vermont. More days with cars parked beyond Snowshed, solid lift lines but not obnoxious unless you crave the K1. Still plenty of room weekdays, which offers so much upside to the bottom line. You would think that K would offer something truly special for weekday attendance Mon-Thur. I'm leaving out Friday since the Fridays I skied had strong attendance.

I know that you never want to "give away" the product, but you will make money if you get more people there no matter what the rate. Set up a cheap half day ticket so that no one will want to go to a lesser feeder type hill. Not a discounted ticket, but something truly cheap. A portion of those "new" customers will buy food/drink/services, nice margin business. Some will just ski. That's OK, whatever $ you are getting from them is all a big plus. Fixed costs for midweek ops would not be affected unless you get a huge attendance increase, a nice problem to have. This would really get the annual attendance up and provide funds and rationale for more improvements.

We'll never really know the annual K visits year over year, but general numbers do tend to creep out over time, especially when K wants to show up Okemo.

[freeski]

It's all the economy.

And that was a year with a train wreck xmas

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Yep, I think this is the main reason and decent to better snow conditions. Most likely up across New England. Hoping for another good year as the days start getting shorter in a couple of weeks.

[Bubba]

We'll never really know the annual K visits year over year, but general numbers do tend to creep out over time, especially when K wants to show up Okemo.

You obviously haven't attended the semi-annual KPAA meetings at the Grand where Mike presents the numbers for summer and winter visits.

[freeski]

Please tell me Killington doesn't have year over year deep dive meetings with the public. Skiing is skiing, cults are cults.

Vail has screwed everything up, almost hope for a couple of bad snow years or holiday (enounce like Howie Carr) warm ups just so they get American Ski Co.'d.

Although Vail has partner's - and subs out low profit centers they are carrying a large amount of debt.

If you want to make a lot of money in the ski industry meow it's time to fool the public butt, when it comes down to fooling me that's quit different subject. What doesn't Vail have to do w/ Killington

It might be true.

[freeski]

https://www.concordmonitor.com/Plenty-o ... n-26140641" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yep, good snow good economy, good season.

from Concord Monitor:

"As many as 100,000 more people hit the slopes in the Granite State during the 2018-2019 season, for a 5% increase over the previous year, according Ski NH’s President Jessyca Keeler.
Maine saw a total of 1.23 million skiers for a 12% increase over the previous year, Greg Sweetser of the Ski Maine Association said on Friday.
Ski Vermont, meanwhile, said resorts in the state had 207,000 more visitors than last season for an increase of 5%. That puts Vermont’s total number of skier and rider visits this past season at more than 4 million, the most since the 2014-2015 season and 1.2% higher than the 10-year average."

[Highway Star]

Strong economy means more trips out West. The best eastern areas can hope for is gradually increasing their yield per visit while sustaining their visits.