More ski resort numbers...

Just yesterday we discuss ski resort acquisition prices per skier day. The concept may sound new to you, but find it particularly helpful when we're looking for meaningful metric to better understand the economic reality of the ski industry.

If we stay with Vail Resorts, we can get a better sense of the inner working of its financial reality. In 2017, Vail Resorts claim 12 million skier-days for about $1,890 million in sales. While its income before income taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was $593 million, its net income was $211 million.

Based on skier-day, these number translate to $158 in sale, $49 in EBITDA and $18 in net income. One more thing, the effective ticket price (ETP), the lift ticket revenue divided by total skier visits, amounted to $68 about half Vail Resorts' peak season daily lift ticket.

Now, you can compare these numbers to the $525/skier-day acquisition cost of Whistler that we discussed yesterday and figure a 30 times earning-ratio, that also include real estate, various equipment and other non ski related assets.

This price earning-ratio is pretty much the same as Vail Resorts' stock (MTN) current P/E ratio for 2017 at 30.92 and its 28.73 projection for 2018...