Industry News
Vail Resorts, who own and operate 37 ski areas across the United States including Vail, Breckenridge, Heavenly, and Crested Butte, have announced that they have sold 2.3 million pre-purchased passes for the 2022-23 Season. This serves as a 6% increase from the 2021-22 season, which means you can definitely expect to see a lot of skiers and snowboarders out on the slopes this year. These statistics were released as part of the company’s earnings report for the first fiscal quarter of 2023, which came to a close on October 31st.
Vail Resort’s CEO, Kirsten Lynch, provided some comments in conjunction with the release of these figures. She opines, “Pass product sales through December 5, 2022, for the upcoming 2022/2023 North American ski season increased approximately 6% in units and approximately 6% in sales dollars as compared to the period in the prior year through December 6, 2021. Compared to sales for the 2019/2020 North American ski season through December 9, 2019, pass product sales increased approximately 86% in units and approximately 53% in sales dollars.”
These 2.3 million visits are expected to generate $800 million in revenue. They will also likely represent as much as 70% of total skier visits committed for the season. This comes out to about 1.1 million more guests in the program since the 2019-20 season, a truly massive increase.
Lynch also stated that the Epic Day Pass continues to be the company’s highest-growth product segment. In regards to this, she says:
“This represents substantial growth in our highest-priced products and among our most penetrated high-frequency skier segment, and we expected this year’s performance as a result of the significant growth after last year’s price reset. We continue to expect that the majority of the future growth in advance commitment will come from the large and attractive addressable market of destination guests, primarily through transitioning lower frequency lift ticket guests into Epic Day Pass products, and transitioning guests at our local and regional resorts into advance commitment.”
Will you be skiing or riding at a Vail Resort this year? 2022-23 Epic Pass holders will certainly find this release from Vail Resorts interesting, as it appears that the company is firing on all cylinders economically and is showing no signs of slowing down as we enter the busy holiday season. With great early season snowpack in most regions of the U.S. and pass purchasing trends like this, it’s clear that skiing and snowboarding are as popular as ever!
Not me. I did not renew my Vail Tahoe pass this year.
NO, you won’t see me at a Vail resort. 2.3 million passes sold may be good news for Vail Resorts, but it also means they have OVER sold their passes once again. So, Good Luck to all Vail season pass and Epic Pass holders. Enjoy the crowd, lines, lack of parking and traffic insanity. As for me, I will do my 60+ ski days elsewhere.