COVID-19 Zoom Round Table – 1/6/21 – Learnings from Holiday Week

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 19^th 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.