Hotels, resort see fewer ski-season visitors

With the nationwide economy in shambles, it should be no surprise that the local economy took a hit this winter with fewer people overall visiting town and the mountain.

Add to that a mediocre snow year, a less-than-favorable Canadian exchange rate, and the loss of a major local event, and it is amazing that the area fared as well as it did in attracting visitors this past ski-season.

City Finance Director Rich Knapp said that revenue from the local bed tax in December was down 16 percent from the previous year. January was eight percent lower than last year, while February was four percent lower. March numbers were not available as of press time.

"Overall, our bed tax revenue from July through February is only up 1.7 percent from last year," Knapp said. "July and August were the big months, with July up 35 percent from last year and August up 16 percent."

Whitefish Mountain Resort made lemonade out of lemons this winter, cutting costs and attracting more season-pass holders to the slopes. A flurry of late-season snow allowed Whitefish Mountain Resort to just barely reach its five-year average for paid skier visits on the day before it closed for the season.

"The reason we got to our five-year is we are a great value in the ski area industry," resort spokesman Donnie Clapp said. "Season pass holders skied more this year. Some people didn't go other places as much. We also had different kinds of passholders skiing this year because of all the beautiful sunny days. There was a whole different class of passholder out there for the sunny days, even though we had less snow."

The resort sold almost 7,100 season passes this winter, up from 7,000 last year. The mountain finished with 298 inches of total snowfall at the Big Mountain summit, just under the 15-year average of about 300 inches.

Clapp said that for the second year in a row, not only did the resort not borrow any money but paid down its debt and interest on the debt. The resort has a debt of around $6 million, Clapp said.

"It's likely in the short term we will be completely debt-free as an organization," Clapp said. "Just three or four years ago we were going deeper into debt than coming out of it."

The resort did suffer in its retail operations due to the depressed economy this year.

"Even though our skier visit numbers were average, people were much less inclined to buy lessons, food and retail items," Clapp said. "All of those things contribute to our bottom line. We also had less lodging numbers overall, significantly less people coming in to stay at our resort. On the other hand, our total nights weren't down as much. Because all of our units are privately owned, we had owners staying in their own condos and homes. We do surveys every day, randomly, and we saw a noticeable increase in people who were staying with friends and family."

Clapp said that the resort managed labor and expenses efficiently this season to cut costs.

"We became smarter about inventory," he said. "Our operations switched over to on-demand ordering and concentrating on recycling materials. A real culture of conservation has been embraced, and everyone has concentrated on saving money. Revenue is down, but the bottom line is looking good. We are not getting rid of any full-time employees."

In town, lodge owners reported lower numbers of visitors during the winter as well. Karen Baker, director of revenue at Grouse Mountain Lodge, said that the overall occupancy at the lodge was down around 30 percent from last year.

Kent Taylor, owner of the Hidden Moose Lodge, said that the loss of the Doug and Rollie Smith alpine ski races at Whitefish Mountain Resort negatively affected his operation.

"December was down," he said. "Let me put it this way: Last year was our best ski season ever, and this year failed in comparison. It was less because the Canadian exchange rate was 20 percent off of what it was last year. If you factor in the loss of the Doug Smith, that's our 'get over the hump' deal. It's a 10- to 12-day event where 60 people a day are usually staying with us. It's a huge loss."

Taylor said that one bright spot was that because occupancy was off, the lodge was able to give more rooms to charitable organizations such as the Special Olympics and the North Valley Food Bank to use as prizes.

"That is one of the few good things about this past season," he said.

The resort has decided not to raise the price on the $535 'regular adult) early purchased season passes for next year. This summer, the resort will open a new zip line as well as an alpine slide to go along with new and improved mountain biking routes.