Vail Resorts skier visits up 5.5% over last season

With a boost from ample late-season snow, Vail Resorts Inc. said Monday that skier visits at its seven mountain resorts in Colorado and Lake Tahoe rose 5.5 percent for the 2012-13 ski season through April 14 over its results the previous season.

That marked a distinct improvement from the company's numbers earlier in the season. Through January, skier visits at Vail Resorts ski areas were up only 2.9 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Also, lift ticket revenue — including the applicable portion of season pass revenue — was up 10.2 percent at the seven ski and snowboard areas this season, Broomfield-based Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN) said.

The figures apply to Colorado's Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone resorts and Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood resorts in the Lake Tahoe area on the California-Nevada line.

Kirkwood was included although Vail Resorts closed on its purchase of the California resort last April.

But the numbers do not include the company's newly acquired Afton Alps resort in Minnesota and Mount Brighton in Michigan, which it bought last December.

The 2012-13 figures are through April 14 and do not include numbers from the April 19-21 period. Vail and Breckenridge were among the Colorado resorts that temporarily reopened over that period because of heavy April snow.

Other season-to-season comparisons released by Vail Resorts Monday: Dining revenue rose 13.1 percent, ski school revenue was up 11.6 percent, and retail/rental revenue climbed 8.9 percent from the same point of last season.

Rob Katz, Vail Resorts CEO, said the company is "very pleased with the strong results this season. The growth in skier visitation continued to accelerate through Spring Break and the Easter holiday which contributed to our double-digit growth in lift ticket, dining and ski school revenues compared to the same period last year, offset by somewhat slower momentum at our Tahoe resorts and our retail business."

Other Colorado ski resorts have not yet released their full-season season totals.

Through Feb. 28, other Colorado resorts saw a 4.2 percent drop in skier visits from last season, according to a March 22 report from Colorado Ski Country USA, the trade group for most Colorado ski resorts except those operated by Vail Resorts.

But those numbers did not include periods of heavy snowfall in March and April.

Reported by:  Denver Business Journal