Good News And Bad Heading Into Season

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Good News And Bad Heading Into Season

By Craig Altschul
October 02, 2007

OK, bad news first. Ralf Garrison, president of Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP) told about 150 mountain resort sales executives today that several indicators don't send out good vibes for the industry, including dramatic declines in the National Consumer Confidence index from 111 in July to 99 in September, with 7.6 percent drop in September alone.

Garrison was among a strong line-up of pundits at Mountain Travel Symposium's first regional Fall Forum Tuesday (10/2) at Breckenridge, Colo. The good news, Garrison said, is that lodging reservations for the coming season are up 2.2 percent over last year, average daily revenue is up 9.9 percent, and overall revenue up 12 percent.

"The session was solid in terms of presenters, new information provided, and in attendance, particularly for a first-time effort," Mountain News Publisher Rob Brown told The Industry Report. Coverage for this alert also was provided by longtime Colorado-based publicist Joan Christensen.

Keynote speaker Paul Goodloe, meteorologist for The Weather Channel's Evening Edition, provided a gloomy outlook on the status of global warming and its impact on high alpine environments. "The warm weather is winning out and this is just the beginning of our problems."

Christensen said Goodloe softened his message slightly by tossing out the day's best line: "I'm going to take this presentation and make it understandable for you liberal arts graduates."

Mountain News partner and Internet Director Chad Dyer, one of the day's presenters, told the IR following the final session that one of the industry's best opportunities is to find a way to increase mountain resort online bookings from the reported current level of 25-30 percent closer to the 60 percent number reported for all travel. Those figures were offered from research reports at earlier sessions.

"The airlines will be better prepared to deal with large snow storms after lessons learned from last December, said Bill Tomcich, President of Stay Aspen Snowmass. Mike Mooney, senior VP of The Boyd Group, told the audience business was up four percent at Denver International Airport last year and 3.5 at Salt Lake International.

Mooney added that Frontier Airlines may introduce "the green machine," a new fuel-efficient jet for mountain communities. That intro, he predicted, will "trigger an intense competitive response that will increase capacity into mountain airports and reduce some airfares."

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