Virus chills early Vail ski season

BROOMFIELD — The COVID-19 outbreak took a huge bite out of Vail Resorts Inc.’s (NYSE: MTN) late-season ski area revenues last spring and the virus appears to be having a similar effect on the early 2021 winter season. 

Season-to-date total skier visits were down 16.6% compared to the 2020 ski season, which began to see a COVID-19 revenue hit in March when Vail began shuttering its resorts. 

Lift ticket revenue season to date is off by 20.9%, ski school sales are down 52.6% and dining revenue has fallen 66.2%.

“As expected, COVID-19 has had a significant negative impact on our 2020/2021 North American ski season-to-date results,” Vail CEO Rob Katz said in the firm’s early season metrics report released Friday. ”Visitation across our North American resorts declined relative to prior year levels, primarily as a result of declines in visitation from non-pass, lift ticket purchases. We expect these declines were primarily driven by reduced demand for destination visitation at our western resorts and COVID-19 related capacity limitations, which were further impacted by snowfall levels that were well below average at our Colorado, Utah and Tahoe resorts through the holiday season.”

Vail, which has made $1.1 billion in private offerings over the past year to shore up its cash position, is not currently offering any revenue guidance for the remainder of fiscal year 2021.

“However, if capacity restrictions remain stable and we experience normal conditions in Colorado, Utah and Tahoe, we would expect to see improved performance for the remainder of the season,” Katz said.

© 2021 BizWest Media LLC

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