Vail Resorts makes bank!

Last Friday, Vail Resorts reported some preliminary stats comparing the 2017/2018 to the 2018/2019 ski seasons. These numbers apply for the entire network and are not broken down by individual ski resorts.

Also, keep in mind that year-to-year, inflation stayed at around 2.2% while Vail Resorts hiked its ski passes price by about 5%. With this in mind, lift tickets revenue increased by 9.3%, while ski-school went up by 6.5%, food and beverage 6.2% and retail sales some 6.2%.

Overall this was a very good year for the ski conglomerate.

Now, as we look into the future, will that bonanza continue? Well, to make it happen, we would need as good a snow year as this past one, a consumer still willing to buy the Epic pass in spite of its relentless price hikes (when is a lot becoming too much?), no defection from the Epic to the new Ikon pass, and finally, an economy that remains very strong.

A lot to ask, of course, and something increasingly hard to get...