The 1/6/21 COVID Zoom Round Table dealt with learnings from Holiday Week. It was noted that the CCSAA consumer website traffic is up 199% for the month of December and up 189% since September 1. Media interest it at its al time highest and retailers are experiencing bare shelves in the cross country departments. What are the ski areas seeing?
Panelists
- Christie Hicks – Executive Director, Crested Butte Nordic, CO
- Richard Hodges – Nordic Director, White Pine Touring, UT
- Dustin Hite – Owner, Osceola Ski & Sport Resort, NY
- Nick Mahood – Nordic Center and Recreational Trails Director, Woodstock Nordic, VT
- Sally Jones – Manager, Tahoe Donner Cross Country Ski Area, CA
Audio
Discussion
Christie – Crested Butte Nordic
- Have been slammed since Thanksgiving
- New online systems for ticket sales, rentals and limited retail sales
- Holiday week saw 5 of their biggest days ever
- Rental revenue up over 100%, Seasons pass up 40%
- Online rental platform is Gear-O
- Seen tons of beginners, having a great time
- Merchandise sales up 100%
Richard – White Pine Nordic
- Very snow challenged, have barely been able to set track
- Every day is like a busy Saturday
- Have a large influx of Californians as they cannot move about in their state
- Had to move some COVID signs as crowds increased
- All lessons moved to private lessons, may never go back to group lessons
- Operations have been running quite smoothly, lots of thought put into creating some good plans. Season pass sales up 500% despite tourism sales down
- Retail sales up 300%, scrambling to find boots 39/40/41s.
Dustin – Osceola Ski & Sport
- Limited early season snow, but currently has great skiing on 6in
- Have limited rental stock, about 20 pair and they are rented all the time
- Lodge is open to 50%
- Began selling skis in August, crazy
- Rental revenue drastically higher, season pass sales higher
- Tons of beginners, many coming from alpine
Nick – Woodstock Nordic
- Anticipated a very busy winter after a busy summer
- Started selling season passes and equipment far earlier than ever
- Lack of snow has not slowed pass and ski sales
- Saturday Dec 19th busiest day ever
- Many day passes and lessons tied to hotel occupancy that is way down due to state travel restrictions
- Seeing lots of beginners and lapsed skiers
- Ski shop busy repairing old equipment
- Call for season leases which they normally do not do
Sally – Tahoe Donner Cross Country
- Opened before Thanksgiving
- Had early season tech issues with new reservation system
- Biggest capacity issue is parking and is usually at capacity, mostly with season pass holders
- Day ticket sales OK, season pass sales up
- Allowed only on-line sales to start – lost some early business from walk-ups
- Revenue number OK, retail matching last year, food sales way down as there is no indoor dinning and cannot eat on the deck
- Most people very happy
Robert Lazzaroni – Salomon
- Reorders have been crazy beginning in September
- The fire at the Fischer plant will impact wholesale inventory
- Demand for product next year will be high. Robert suggests you get your orders in early
- He is planning on an aggressive forecast for next year
Chip – White Grass
- Already has 42 days on snow
- Lots of demand, lots of skiing
- Lots of cross over from alpine and cycling
- Selling a ton of gear, always sells entire rental fleet and replaces every year
- Looking for certain boot sizes and will buy at retail prices
- Mostly classic skiing
- People want online sales and rentals, they don’t have that yet.
