Posted: 7:00 pm Sun, December 13, 2009
By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer
Coming off a season in which visitor numbers grew over the prior year, Maryland’s only ski resort expects a steady season and another visitation increase, thanks to predictions of a snowy winter.
Wisp Resort in Garrett County does not release its specific visitor totals, but Director of Marketing Lori Epp said the Appalachian Mountain resort saw a 7.9 percent increase in skier and snowboarder visits during the 2008-09 season over the prior year.
And Wisp isn’t alone — despite a lagging economy that’s taking a toll on luxury purchases and discretionary spending, many resorts across the mid-Atlantic and Southeast saw an uptick in visitation numbers last year, according to the National Ski Areas Association.
Although the total number of resort visitors nationwide was down by 5 percent last year to 57.4 million, the prior season’s 60.5 million visitors was a record year for the ski industry. This year, experts predict the visitor total to easily top 58 million.
Last year’s decrease was largely felt out West, where ski resorts are more isolated and more commonly are vacation destinations instead of drive-to destinations or weekend trips. Meanwhile, resorts from Pennsylvania to Alabama combined for an 8.8 percent increase in visitors last year.
“Typically what we saw in the kind of areas immediately outside Baltimore and in Pennsylvania, they had record years because it’s easy to get to those places from the Washington-Baltimore area,” said Michael Berry, the Colorado-based ski association’s president.
Epp said many of Wisp’s visitors last season came from within a few hours’ drive. While Wisp does not track new visitors, Berry said it’s likely that one of the reasons this region’s ski resorts saw a visitor increase is because some were substituting their usual trip out West for a local destination.
“We’re not so bold as to say we’re unaffected by the economy,” Berry said. “But it’s one of those shared experiences for which there is no easy parallel.”
Analysts say an economically healthy ski season first and foremost depends on the weather. That said, once people got to resorts last year, they were thrifty. Families stayed for fewer days or shared rented condos and brought their own food, for example.
“Spending was down across the board, and that was in line with everyone [in retail],” said Cole Kimball, a research analyst with Denver-based Janco Partners.
But with more than half of a resort’s annual income coming from lift tickets and equipment rentals, just getting people out to the resorts is crucial. Kimball said he expects spending this year to be “stable or slightly better” than last year.
Epp said in addition to increasing Wisp’s visitor total this year, they are trying to increase the length of stays to bump spending back up.
To that end, Wisp is teaming up with two Pennsylvania resorts each located an hour away. Wisp season-ticket buyers will get a free one-day lift ticket at either the Seven Springs Mountain Resort or the Hidden Valley Resort. Both resorts are also offering a similar deal.
Similar packages are being offered at other places across the country, said Berry, of the National Ski Areas Association. He said the association is encouraging ski resorts to get creative in adding value to their vacation packages this year to keep visitation up.
“[Skiers] will spend their money, but they want a return on their investment,” he said. “The more cooperative we become as an industry when we’re looking at tougher economic times, the better. Cooperative lift tickets maybe gets people to stay an extra night.”
Epp said she believes Wisp has a leg up because of the additional activities it offers such as snow tubing and a just-opened ice skating rink. Wisp also has a new create-your-own vacation package that gives discounts on resort activities to customers if they book them the same time they book their hotel room.
Reports of a colder winter on the East Coast this year is also keeping them optimistic. Wisp makes its own snow, but to skiers, there’s no substitution for the real stuff.
“We think that the snow’s going to bring them out,” Epp said. “If the weather is decent and the snowfall is here, the visitors will come.”