vail skier visits per year

Vail Resorts Reports 22/23 Skier Visits Are Up 6.1% Over Last Season

Vail Resorts has released interim period data for the current ski season up to April 16, 2023, as well as data for the same period in the previous year up to April 17, 2022. The figures relate to the Company's North American destination mountain resorts and regional ski areas, including Seven Springs, Hidden Valley, and Laurel Mountain. The data excludes the results of the Australian ski areas and Andermatt-Sedrun in both periods, and is subject to review and adjustments at the end of the fiscal quarter.

The season-to-date total skier visits increased by 6.1% compared to the prior year's season-to-date period, while total lift ticket revenue, including an allocated portion of season pass revenue, was up 4.0%. Additionally, ski school revenue increased by 26.4% and dining revenue increased by 35.3% compared to the prior year period. Retail/rental revenue for North American resort and ski area store locations also increased by 21.8%.

Season-to-date total skier visits were up 6.1% compared to the prior year season-to-date period.

Season-to-date total lift ticket revenue, including an allocated portion of season pass revenue for each applicable period, was up 4.0% compared to the prior year season-to-date period.

Season-to-date ski school revenue was up 26.4% and dining revenue was up 35.3% compared to the prior year season-to-date period. Retail/rental revenue for North American resort and ski area store locations was up 21.8% compared to the prior year season-to-date period.

Massive lines of skiers and snowboarders at Park City Mountain Resort. Credit: SnowStash

Kirsten Lynch, CEO of Vail Resorts, expressed pleasure with the strong growth in visitation and spending compared to the prior year, and highlighted the positive impact of returning to normal staffing levels on guest satisfaction scores. She noted the challenges faced by the company during the winter season due to weather-related disruptions and capacity constraints caused by COVID-19. However, she stated that the stability created by the company's advance commitment strategy helped offset these challenges.

Lynch also provided an outlook for fiscal 2023, stating that the strong finish to the season was in line with the Resort Reported EBITDA guidance issued in March 2023. She mentioned that spring pass sales for the 2023/2024 season were underway, and that the company had seen solid growth in pass product sales in both local and destination markets, particularly in the Northeast.

The reported ski season metrics include growth for season pass revenue based on estimated fiscal 2023 North American season pass revenue compared to fiscal 2022 North American season pass revenue. 

Basis of Presentation

The reported ski season metrics include growth for season pass revenue based on estimated fiscal 2023 North American season pass revenue compared to fiscal 2022 North American season pass revenue. The metrics include all North American destination mountain resorts and regional ski areas, including Seven Springs, Hidden Valley and Laurel Mountain as if they were owned in both periods, and are adjusted to eliminate the impact of foreign currency by applying current period exchange rates to the prior period for Whistler Blackcomb’s results. “Eastern” U.S. resorts collectively refers to the 26 Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast resorts.

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Vail Resorts Reports Certain Ski Season Metrics

Metrics for the season-to-date period ended Jan. 7 show total skier visits were down 16.2% but lift ticket revenue was up 2.6%.

Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN) today reported certain ski season metrics for the comparative periods from the beginning of the ski season through January 7, 2024, and for the prior year period through January 8, 2023. The reported ski season metrics are for the Company’s North American destination mountain resorts and regional ski areas, excluding the results of the Australian ski areas and Andermatt-Sedrun in both periods. The data mentioned in this release is interim period data and is subject to fiscal quarter end review and adjustments.

• Season-to-date total skier visits were down 16.2% compared to the prior year season-to-date period.
• Season-to-date total lift ticket revenue, including an allocated portion of season pass revenue for each applicable period, was up 2.6% compared to the prior year season-to-date period.
• Season-to-date ski school revenue was up 5.0% and dining revenue was down 5.8% compared to the prior year season-to-date period. Retail/rental revenue for North American resort and ski area store locations was down 13.3% compared to the prior year season-to-date period.

Vail Mountain. Courtesy of Vail Resorts

Commenting on the ski season-to-date, Kirsten Lynch, Chief Executive Officer said, “Given the challenging conditions to start the 2023/2024 North American ski season, we are pleased with our season-to-date results and the guest service delivered at our resorts, highlighting the stability provided by our season pass program and the investments we have made in our resorts and employees. Through the holiday period ended January 7, 2024, conditions across our North American resorts were below average in all regions compared to the strong early season conditions in the prior year period, leading to a decline in both local and destination skier visitation. The unfavorable conditions impacted all of our North American resorts, and particularly our Eastern U.S. (comprising the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast) and Tahoe resorts, which were impacted by limited natural snow and variable temperatures that resulted in delayed openings, reduced terrain offerings, and select resort closure days through the holiday period. Although the conditions negatively impacted visitation across our North American resorts, particularly among our local guests, our season pass sales results significantly mitigated the impact of the slower start to the season on overall lift revenue and highlight the stability created by our advance commitment strategy. Despite the decline in season-to-date visitation relative to the prior year period, we are pleased with the strength in ancillary spending per visit across our ski school, rental, and dining businesses.”

Lynch continued, “As a result of the challenging conditions through the holiday period, season-to-date guest visitation and revenue was below our expectations in North America. The majority of our North American resorts experienced significant snowstorms leading up to and over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, which impacted the guest experience, but also led to recently improved conditions across our resorts. Based on our significant base of pre-committed guests through advance commitment pass products and an improvement in conditions across our resorts in recent weeks, we now expect that Resort Reported EBITDA for fiscal 2024 will be in the lower half of the guidance range issued on September 28, 2023. Our guidance assumes a continuation of the improvement in conditions that we are currently experiencing at our North American resorts, normal weather conditions for the remainder of the 2023/2024 European ski season and the 2024 Australian ski season, a continuation of the current economic environment, and the foreign currency exchange rates as of our original September 2023 guidance. We are looking forward to the remainder of the season given the recently improved conditions, the investments we have made to continue elevating the guest experience, and the stability provided by our season pass program.”

Basis of Presentation

The reported ski season metrics include growth for season pass revenue based on estimated fiscal 2024 North American season pass revenue compared to fiscal 2023 North American season pass revenue. The metrics include all North American destination mountain resorts and regional ski areas, and are adjusted to eliminate the impact of foreign currency by applying current period exchange rates to the prior period for Whistler Blackcomb’s results.

About Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN)

Vail Resorts is a network of the best destination and close-to-home ski resorts in the world including Vail Mountain, Breckenridge, Park City Mountain, Whistler Blackcomb, Stowe, and 32 additional resorts across North America; Andermatt-Sedrun in Switzerland; and Perisher, Hotham, and Falls Creek in Australia. We are passionate about providing an Experience of a Lifetime to our team members and guests, and our EpicPromise is to reach a zero net operating footprint by 2030, support our employees and communities, and broaden engagement in our sport. Our company owns and/or manages a collection of elegant hotels under the RockResorts brand, a portfolio of vacation rentals, condominiums and branded hotels located in close proximity to our mountain destinations, as well as the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Vail Resorts Retail operates more than 250 retail and rental locations across North America. Learn more about our company at www.VailResorts.com , or discover our resorts and pass options at www.EpicPass.com .

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Record number of skier days at American resorts this year despite so-so snowfall

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For decades, traffic to American ski resorts has relied on one thing: Snow. 

Big snowfall meant big business. 

But the busiest season ever in American skiing — 2021-22, with an all-time high of 61 million skier days — was not a remarkable snow year. 

The previous high points for national skier visits were set in 2010-11, 2007-08 and 2009-10. Those seasons were snowy, with nearly every region reporting above-average snow. The nation was locked in an economic slump those years, which further supported the resort industry’s long-held assertion that snowfall trumps all and business booms when the flakes pile deep. 

The 2021-22 season dispels that notion. After a decade of largely flat visitation — dipping as low as 51 million in 2011-12 and as high as 59.3 million in 2019-20 — the rebound to an all-time high bodes well for a 37-state industry that sees growing demand and season-pass sales outstripping snow as its primary driver.

“Strong season pass sales and a continued desire for outdoor recreation are two of the primary contributing factors to the season’s record-breaking results,” reads a statement from the National Ski Areas Association , which announced the new high mark during its annual conference in Nashville on Friday. 

NSAA spokeswoman Adrienne Saia Isaac said “a major factor” in the national record was the nearly 100 ski areas in six Rocky Mountain states that saw 25.2 million visits, a 12% bump over last season. Vail Resorts, the largest operator in North America, reported in late April that visits to its U.S. and Canadian ski areas were up 12.5% for the 2021-22 season from the year before. 

Here are some details from those ski areas in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. 

132: Days of operation, above the 10-year average. 

58%: Portion of resorts that opened late. 

6%: Portion of resorts that closed early. 

228: Inches of snow, slightly below the 10-year average.

4: Number of ski areas open in 2021-22 that weren’t open in 2020-21.

Colorado Ski Country, the trade group that represents 22 of the state’s 28 ski areas, has not announced 2021-22 visits for its member resorts. Last year the trade group estimated about 12 million skier visits, an increase over the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season but about 4% below Colorado’s five-year average. 

Visits to Colorado ski areas peaked in 2018-19, when resorts counted 13.8 million skier days.

Vail Resorts, which operates five Colorado ski hills that host more than 5.5 million skier visits a year, including the state’s busiest Vail and Breckenridge, does not report skier visits by resort or even by state. (That 5.5 million estimate comes from historic visitation numbers at the company’s Colorado hills and its publicly reported annual growth figures.) 

The company last year reported it sold 2.1 million advance lift tickets and season passes . Vail Resorts’ rival Alterra Mountain Co. is privately held and does not release any statistics, but its Ikon Pass is wildly popular. The Mountain Collective Pass, the Indy Pass, the Powder Alliance corral independent resorts into single passes. And most ski resorts offer their own season pass. 

Independent ski areas with their own passes thrived last winter as Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Co. battled for season-pass market share. 

The boom in season passes — once reserved only for the most dedicated skiers — has changed the resort industry. Passes deliver revenue before lifts turn, removing the fraught reliance on snowfall from resort bottom lines. Pass revenue has enabled resorts to invest more in the summer months. And passes have boosted visitation. 

Yet passes have reduced the importance of skier visits. The skier day metric used to be a critical gauge, with each visit tied to the purchase of a lift ticket. Now resorts collect a season’s worth of lift-ticket revenue before the snow falls, making the number of times that pass is used less financially important.

But operationally, the impact of record season pass sales is a different story. A deluge of pass holders overwhelmed understaffed ski areas last winter, causing industry-wide headaches, especially at Vail Resorts . NSAA said 81% of U.S. ski areas were unable to fill every job last season, with an average of 75 empty positions at each resort. Ski areas far and wide are bumping pay and boosting benefits for the 2022-23 season . 

For the third season in a row, season passes eclipsed lift tickets in the tally of visits. Skiers with season passes made up 52% of all national visits, compared with 37% using day lift tickets. (The remaining 11% are off-duty workers and complimentary tickets.) The NSAA’s preliminary report for the 2021-22 season showed ski areas of all sizes across the country increased season pass sales last year.

Ski areas in the U.S. plan to invest $728 million in 2022, the NSAA reported. That’s an all-time high. Vail Resorts, for example, plans to spend as much as $325 million on its ski areas this summer, including installing 19 new chairlifts. Alterra Mountain Co. plans a largest-ever investment of $344 million at its 15 resorts . Across the industry, more resorts are investing in lifts, terrain and villages, marking a record year for lift-makers like Grand Junction’s Leitner Poma and Europe’s Doppelmayr. 

“The whole world is changing,” Leitner Poma of America boss Daren Cole told The Colorado Sun last December. “And next year will be off the charts.”

Jason Blevins Outdoors Reporter

Jason Blevins lives in Eagle with his wife, daughters and a dog named Gravy. Job title: Outdoors reporter Topic expertise: Western Slope, public lands, outdoors, ski industry, mountain business, housing, interesting things Location:... More by Jason Blevins

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Vail resorts (nyse:mtn) posts q2 sales in line with estimates.

Luxury ski resort company Vail Resorts (NYSE:MTN) met Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q2 CY2024, but sales fell 1.6% year on year to $265.4 million. Its GAAP loss of $4.67 per share was 10.2% below analysts’ consensus estimates.

Is now the time to buy Vail Resorts? Find out in our full research report .

Vail Resorts (MTN) Q2 CY2024 Highlights: Revenue: $265.4 million vs analyst estimates of $264.9 million (in line) EPS: -$4.67 vs analyst expectations of -$4.24 (10.2% miss) EBITDA guidance for the upcoming financial year 2025 is $858 million at the midpoint, below analyst estimates of $880.3 million Gross Margin (GAAP): -7.2%, down from 16.4% in the same quarter last year EBITDA Margin: -43.7%, down from -32.6% in the same quarter last year Skier Visits: 699,000, down 168,000 year on year Market Capitalization: $6.88 billion

Commenting on the Company's fiscal 2024 results, Kirsten Lynch, Chief Executive Officer, said, "Our overall results for the year highlight the stability and resilience of our advance commitment strategy. Skier visitation declined 9.5% compared to the prior year, driven by unfavorable conditions across our resorts in North America and Australia, combined with the impact of broader industry normalization post-COVID following record visitation in North America during the 2022/2023 ski season. In North America, snowfall across our western resorts was down 28% from the prior year and our eastern U.S. resorts experienced limited natural snow and variable temperatures. Despite industry normalization and challenging conditions, Resort Reported EBITDA, excluding the impact of the Crans-Montana acquisition, remained consistent with prior year results. Performance was supported by strong growth in ancillary spending per visit across ski school, dining, and rental businesses at our resorts, and by strong delivery of the guest experience and cost discipline across our operations."

Company Overview

Founded by two Aspen, Colorado ski patrol guides, Vail Resorts (NYSE:MTN) is a mountain resort company offering luxury experiences in over 30 locations across the globe.

Leisure Facilities

Leisure facilities companies often sell experiences rather than tangible products, and in the last decade-plus, consumers have slowly shifted their spending from "things" to "experiences". Leisure facilities seek to benefit but must innovate to do so because of the industry's high competition and capital intensity.

Sales Growth

A company’s long-term performance can give signals about its business quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one tends to grow for years. Unfortunately, Vail Resorts’s 4.9% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was sluggish. This shows it failed to expand in any major way and is a rough starting point for our analysis.

Long-term growth is the most important, but within consumer discretionary, product cycles are short and revenue can be hit-driven due to rapidly changing trends and consumer preferences. Vail Resorts’s annualized revenue growth of 6.9% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, but we were still disappointed by the results. Note that COVID hurt Vail Resorts’s business in 2020 and part of 2021, and it bounced back in a big way thereafter.

Vail Resorts also discloses its number of skier visits, which reached 699,000 in the latest quarter. Over the last two years, Vail Resorts’s skier visits averaged 36.3% year-on-year growth. Because this number is higher than its revenue growth during the same period, we can see the company’s monetization has fallen.

This quarter, Vail Resorts reported a rather uninspiring 1.6% year-on-year revenue decline to $265.4 million of revenue, in line with Wall Street’s estimates. Looking ahead, Wall Street expects sales to grow 4.1% over the next 12 months, a slight deceleration versus the last two years.

When a company has more cash than it knows what to do with, buying back its own shares can make a lot of sense–as long as the price is right. Luckily, we’ve found one, a low-priced stock that is gushing free cash flow AND buying back shares. Click here to claim your Special Free Report on a fallen angel growth story that is already recovering from a setback .

Cash Is King

Although earnings are undoubtedly valuable for assessing company performance, we believe cash is king because you can’t use accounting profits to pay the bills.

Vail Resorts has shown impressive cash profitability, giving it the option to reinvest or return capital to investors. The company’s free cash flow margin averaged 15.4% over the last two years, better than the broader consumer discretionary sector.

Key Takeaways from Vail Resorts’s Q2 Results

We struggled to find many strong positives in these results. Its number of skier visits unfortunately missed and its EPS fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this was a weaker quarter, but the market was likely pricing in a worse result. The stock traded up 3% to $193.30 immediately following the results.

So do we think Vail Resorts is an attractive buy at the current price?If you’re making that decision, you should consider the bigger picture of valuation, business qualities, as well as the latest earnings. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free .

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Revenue up, skier visits down for Vail Resorts

News News | Apr 24, 2015

Vail Daily staff report   

[email protected]

BROOMFIELD — Vail Resorts reported modest increases in revenue for the ski season through Sunday compared to last year, with a slight drop in skier visits across the company’s nine mountain resorts.

The latest season metrics compared this season to the prior year period through April 20, 2014, adjusted as if Park City was owned in both periods. The reported ski season metrics did not incorporate the urban ski areas of Afton Alps and Mt. Brighton. The data is subject to fiscal quarter end review and adjustment.

Highlights from the report include:

• Season-to-date total lift revenue at the company’s nine mountain resorts, including an allocated portion of season pass revenue for each applicable period, was up 8.5 percent compared to the prior year.

“This was a challenging year, with snowfall in Tahoe at record lows and Utah experiencing abnormally warm and dry conditions this spring. However, we were able to overcome these challenges.” Rob KatzCEO, Vail Resorts @media ( min-width: 1440px ) { .vail-donation-mobile { display: none; } } body.vaildaily .btn:hover { color: white !important; } Support Local Journalism Donate

• Season-to-date ancillary spending outpaced skier visitation, with ski school revenue up 3.4 percent and dining revenue up 3.3 percent at the company’s nine mountain resorts compared to the prior year. Additionally, retail/rental revenue for resort store locations was up 3.8 percent.

• Season-to-date total skier visits for the company’s nine mountain resorts were down 2.8 percent compared to the prior year season-to-date period.

“We are very pleased with our results as the 2014-15 ski season comes to its conclusion,” said Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz. “This was a challenging year, with snowfall in Tahoe at record lows and Utah experiencing abnormally warm and dry conditions this spring. However, we were able to overcome these challenges through the strength of our season pass program and data-driven marketing efforts, by providing a comprehensive world-class destination experience, by attracting high-income guests from around the world and through growth in our ski school, dining and retail businesses.

“Our lift revenue growth of 8.5 percent significantly outpaced visitation as a result of the benefit of our season pass program that secured significant revenue in advance of the season and mitigated the volatility of results and by expanding yields through increasingly sophisticated pricing, promotion and distribution strategies. We remain comfortable with the latest guidance we issued March 12, though we are likely to finish the year in the lower half of the range, given the further deterioration in conditions we faced this spring in Utah and Tahoe.”

Katz said that 2015-16 season pass sales are already underway.

“The breadth of our season pass collection, led by the Epic Pass and Epic Local Pass, remain the most compelling value for skiers and riders in the United States and from around the world,” he said. “To date, we have seen strong overall results with significant continued growth in sales to our destination markets and good momentum in Colorado and Utah, offsetting some expected declines in Tahoe.”

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Vail Reports Lower Skier Visits, Higher Ticket Sales for ’23-’24 Season

The bottom line: during a mediocre snow year, the ski resort operator’s business strategy worked exactly as planned..

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Call it Vail math: Skier visits were down this past winter, but lift ticket revenue went up after a mediocre snow year. How exactly does that work? Exactly as Vail Resorts planned, that’s how.

VR’s Chief Executive Officer Kirsten Lynch acknowledged the effects of the less-than-ideal snow conditions across many of its North American resorts—especially Whistler Blackcomb—but said that the company was pleased with its overall performance as the 2023-’24 season winds down. That’s thanks largely to increased Epic Pass sales, which skiers commit to before the season gets rolling.

“While visitation declined, our lift revenue increased driven by the growth in pass sales committed ahead of the season,” Lynch shared with investors on April 19, “and our ancillary businesses performed well, with particularly strong growth in spending per visit in our ski and ride school, dining, and rental businesses compared to the same period in the prior year. The results throughout the 2023-’24 North American ski season demonstrate the resiliency of our strategic business model and our network of resorts and loyal guests.”

In other words, while snow conditions may keep skier visits in check during low-snow years, it has surprisingly little impact on the overall lift ticket profits. For companies like Vail Resorts and Ikon Pass parent Alterra Mountain Company, the strategy is to bank as much money as possible in pass sales before the snow even flies—surefire insurance against unfavorable snow years like this past winter.

As for Vail’s skier visits, they were down 7.8 percent from the 2022-’23 season, while overall lift ticket revenue went up 3.2 percent. That number includes a pre-allocated portion of each pass sold for the current season. And even though spring conditions improved at most of Vail Resorts’ ski areas, the ski resort operator expects to only hit the lower end of its earning expectations.

As Lynch and company already turn to next season’s Epic Pass— which is currently on sale —she notes that pass sales are slightly down from this time last year, but pass revenue is already up.

“The April sales deadline only impacts a portion of our renewing pass holders that are eligible for buddy ticket benefits,” said Lynch. “… we will have more to share in our third quarter earnings release in June 2024.”

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