I'm responding directly to the thread title question -- will ski areas be open? If making a profit is iffy, then maybe they won't be open.
At the three mountains where I've worked as an instructor, the bulk of the revenue coming in from the ski schools comes from the children's programs. Many skiers (on weekends at some areas, most) come to ski areas to ski with a family. Parents bring children, and if the kids are young the parents put them in half-day or all-day programs. The daily cost to put a kid in one of those programs can be a lot of $.
Those kids sit in very close proximity to each other inside the children's area after being dropped off, eat close together in the children's area, go to the bathroom in the children's area, and take hot chocolate breaks in the children's area. Next school year, parents may be willing to trust their children to the teachers and schools they already have a relationship with back home. But will they be willing to trust their children to the care of a mountain's children's program next season?
If they aren't, those parents with young kids probably won't come ski. Will the lost revenue from the empty kid's programs be significant enough to mean opening the mountain will result in losing money? Add to that the loss of food sales from all the skiers who choose to avoid the lodge and the cafeteria. Those two bring in a tremendous amount of money. What will management choose to do if that total plummets dramatically?
I don't have industry figures that show how important incoming money from kids' programs and food sales is to the profit margins of this business. But I expect it is a big chunk of what the mountain takes in.
Does anyone reading here have some numbers regarding this issue?
