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« Previous Story | The Industry Report Home Page | Next Story » 'Drive To' Outlook: Half Full Or Half Empty?By Admin 
Barb Green, president of Pennsylvania's Blue Mountain, sees the glass half full. "I think we're going to have another good season. The economy still isn't all the way healthy, and in a bad economy, a lot of people take day trips, which is going to be an advantage for us again this year." Richard Hug, director of Switzerland's Leukerbad Ski Resort, close to Lausanne, Berne, and Zermatt, comes out somewhere in the middle, just hoping for a repeat of last winter in terms of snowfall and visits. "We were very happy with last winter's results – we didn't lose any overnights compared to the previous year – so we do not really want to change a lot." But the glass is filled to the top in Southern California where Karl Kapuscinski, president and chief executive officer of Mountain High Resort (also owned by CNL), is ready to play his two trump cards. Those cards? A potentially strong El Niño, which he says, generally bodes well for snowfall and season length, and the fact that season pass sales at the ski area in the San Gabriel Mountains above Los Angeles are generally dependent upon the previous season. The last two seasons have been strong. Jiminy is coming off the best season in its 40-year history in terms of skier and snowboarder visits. Even so, Fairbank is nervous about small erosions in his customer base. Jiminy has held the line on season passes and slightly increased daily lift ticket prices in a nod to rising costs. But Fairbank says a new factor has been added to the mix, and that perhaps curbs his well-known and generally contagious optimism. "We have 65 schools that come here for programs Monday to Friday. I look at local families who have lost jobs, are living with more anxiety and tighter paychecks, who say to their kids, 'I know you love skiing or riding, but this year you have to forgo it.' We'll know what happens Nov. 15." Blue Mountain's Green told The IR she's not anticipating the "Perfect Storm 2008-09" of the sliding economy, lots of good snow, and every weekend being beautiful, to repeat itself for the ski area whose markets are the close-by urban populations in Allentown and Bethlehem, added to the Philadelphia base just 75 miles away. Hug's Leukerbad maintains his resort area's on-going direction is to market the ski center as a whole-year destination for a wide client base, not necessarily "the traditional top-end market." His advantage? Leukerbad is conveniently located in the Swiss Vallais and is easy to reach by public transport or private car. Recent opening of the Lötschberg base tunnel at the end of 2007 has cut up to an hour off travel time. Hug said the resort also is expanding international sales, offering a "special find" to foreign visitors. That should, he hopes, supplement Leukerbad's 75 percent domestic customer base. Green echoed what's being said on mountaintops across the globe. "We've all looked at what we do, how we spend money, and tried to consolidate and conserve and become more economical." « Previous Story | The Industry Report Home Page | Next Story » |
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