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Occupancy At Destination Resorts Down 16.3 Percent Over Last Winter

By Roger Leo
March 18, 2009

The Industry Report has learned the latest data from MTRiP will show that destination resorts are off 16.3 percent from last year in occupancy for the winter season, and 7.6 percent off in revenue.

Ralf Garrison, Mountain Travel Research Program director, said, "Short-lead, short-haul business has been the defining pendulum this year. It has made the day for some, saved the day for others, and spoiled the day for yet others. Whether this proves to be a fad or a trend will determine how this season ends and how momentum for next season gets established."

Garrison said "short-lead" means bookings made close to arrival, and "short-haul" means guests who stay close to home.

"If we look at the whole winter season November to April, as of the end of February the whole season is down 16.3 percent in occupancy, and down 7.6 percent in rate," he said.

"One of the effects of the changing marketplace this year is that people are staying closer to home. Once pure-destination resorts realized that, they shifted their marketing to shorter lead times and closer guests, which became a self-fulfilling prophesy," Garrison said.

"This made the day for New England resorts who are, of course, close to population centers, but who also had good snow and were smart enough to take advantage of their situation," he said.

Garrison said the National Ski Areas Association is predicting flat performance in New England, with the Rocky Mountains and West down a million skiers each.

"If that's right, we're going to come up with 58 million skier visits against a record 60 million last season, which proves more resiliency than any other market sector I can think of," Garrison said.

"Compared with 401ks, the stock market, airlines, oil - you name it - the lift ticket numbers look really good," he said.

"In-resort spending is off significantly. That's what gets spent at the resort, at restaurants, retail, or on-mountain services like ski school. There the picture is not rosy," Garrison said.

"The notion is out that snow trumps the economy and the resort would rather have good snow than a good economy. We've been arguing about that over the season. It appears that snow is like a magnet: The closer a skier is to where snow falls, the more it attracts them. It brought out season pass holders to local areas, but didn't help destinations, which suffered from the economy more than they enjoyed the snow," Garrison said.

"We're sitting in the middle of March and what happened in December is that these patterns were just emerging for the first time. Going into December, destination resorts looked way off, but last-minute bookings brought an infill of business that saved the day in many cases. The real key to this season is seeing if March fills in at the last minute. My best guess is it won't fill, so we'll have a divot at the end of the season," Garrison said.

"This year's performance will tee up how next year starts up from a momentum standpoint," he said.

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Comments

	This is a good article that accuratly reflects my discussion with Mountain News, but math was off on skier day totals and think 58 million is over reaching. Apologies
	Posted by: Ralf Garrison MTRIP | March 20, 2009 06:11 AM