Ominous. The option of getting an Epic pass recedes ever farther.
This is in prior investor presentations if you are interested you can dig it out. But typically the metric presented is only revenue mix. Only sometimes they'll do a slide on the actual visits.Wow! I'd love to see figures on what percentage of skier visits are from passholders vs. day ticket buyers.
Well, Vail counts the Epic-Day pass as a pass sale. Those can be as short as 1 day of skiing. I suspect many of 18% increase are those sorts of passes - something like 3-4 days of skiing to be used for the one weekend trip they want to do this season. If they didn't buy one, they wouldn't have priority to reserve the days they want far in advance.
These customers would have normally bought lift tickets 2 weeks in advance before arrival.
Just my hunch.....
I'd love to see the % of profits per rider broken down by passholders versus walk up day tickets in addition to the totals for the resort pass sales versus day ticket sales.Wow! I'd love to see figures on what percentage of skier visits are from passholders vs. day ticket buyers.
Makes sense with everyone wanting a recurring revenue business model.. especially in indistries sensitive to other impacts like weather and climate.This is in prior investor presentations if you are interested you can dig it out. But typically the metric presented is only revenue mix. Only sometimes they'll do a slide on the actual visits.
Howerver, with the other statements on ETP, average pass usages, the Rev mix and your knowledge of window rates; you can make a guestimate to the visitor split if they didn't do a specific slide.
In quick search, I was only able to find in this 2019 presentation, they did have a slide on visits with 2017/2018 visitor breakdown (p24). It says 56% passproduct, 44% "lift ticket". Since the strategic goal is to shift more to pass products (including epicday); after 2 extra years of business development I think the current mix is certainly bumped up now. I'd guestimate it's around 66% : 33% (2:1) for last season. The interpretation or takeaways from the data though may vary depending on the exact resort you're at; and how they handle new acquisitions into the metric too.
Obviously, the plan now is to just jump and force it all the way to 100%: 0% in the coming season with the Reservation policy..
A more significant stat to me is the amount of $ spent at the resort by day skiers after they drop $150 + on a ticket vs a pass holder who bought a pass months ago and who doesn't open their wallet until time for an overpriced lunch. IMO this is the key to the business model that incorporates high priced lift tickets and low priced passes.I'd love to see the % of profits per rider broken down by passholders versus walk up day tickets in addition to the totals for the resort pass sales versus day ticket sales.
We'd know what walk up tickets and 3 pack folks paid per day to ski. We'd need a good avarage of pass usage per pass holder to get that side of it.. Total passes sold evenues /daily average passholder usage.. vs Total day ticket reenues/number of day tickets sold for revenues per person at the resort actually using the facilities(costs).
Ya the highway robbery revenue variable is significant. I have a hunch that's the main factor for the open or stay closed decision for the smaller areas like Elk. If you don't have deep pockets to run at a loss this round better to just shutter up for a year and wait. Food, ski shop, rentals, and group lessons are a significant profit centers. Probably way more than season pass revenues.. That's start up money. Lodge, ski school etc, pays the regular season operating costs. Other option is to raise day tickets to offset those lost products.A more significant stat to me is the amount of $ spent at the resort by day skiers after they drop $150 + on a ticket vs a pass holder who bought a pass months ago and who doesn't open their wallet until time for an overpriced lunch. IMO this is the key to the business model that incorporates high priced lift tickets and low priced passes.
Yes, and to me what it also says is hold it, skier numbers may not be down much this year, at Epic.
A more significant stat to me is the amount of $ spent at the resort by day skiers after they drop $150 + on a ticket vs a pass holder who bought a pass months ago and who doesn't open their wallet until time for an overpriced lunch. IMO this is the key to the business model that incorporates high priced lift tickets and low priced passes.
^^^I agree with your last sentence, but it contradicts your first sentence.So my conclusion is that stat of passholder/non-passholder is a bit of a false distinction to me; I think the spending habits go with the guest; or be a result of becoming an experienced skier. This is the underlying core of the epicpass, Get people [of all types] to commit to your resort and lock them in, and they'll spend more.
Good point, makes sense. Although I think it's points out there are a variety of different guest habits; and this makes the analysis of the total revenue spending per day per guests split along passholder/non-passholder even less material though to answer any qeustions or make any decisions. It is perhaps only useful as a 2nd or 3rd order factor, and just lumping it all together by segment is fine for the 1st order analysis.^^^I agree with your last sentence, but it contradicts your first sentence.
My contention is that going from day ticket purchaser to pass holder does modify spending habits substantially when you don't have to spend $150+ within the first few minutes of arriving at a resort. It then has the potential for the former day ticket buyer to spend more at lunch, après ski, shopping, drinks at dinner; you name it, because that $150+ that didn't get spent first thing in the morning with the pass holder, will mean more spending throughout the day and evening.
And even if the $ per day cost of a pass only works out to a small saving over day tickets, the fact that the pass $ was spent months ago, it still makes it easier to open the wallet wide on ski days. It's kinda like a friend once said: "The first day of the season is $900, the rest of the ski days are free".
So my conclusion is that stat of passholder/non-passholder is a bit of a false distinction to me; I think the spending habits go with the guest; or be a result of becoming an experienced skier.
Also pushes the local to take a trip and then be the "destination skier" at a different resort and presumably splurge on that trip (compared to those 5 days at their home resort with tailgate or pocket pb&j lunch). So the roles are blended and the pie is grown.The great equalizer of the megapass era was that it put locals and drive ups on the same pass as the destination skier#. Now those groups still spend differently - a tourist spends more than a drive up spends more than a local usually but all 3 are locked in whereas possibly only the local was before. And it also means lower friction to the extra ski trip. Just as local might say might as well go get a few laps in I've got an hour or 2 spare, a tourist might squeeze an extra weekend in because the skiing is "free".
# Obviously also a factor in the stupid Ikon blowback stuff