C2 The BulleTin • Sunday, april 18, 2021
The future of skiing is
digital, Vail CEO says
BY NIKKI EKSTEIN
Bloomberg
The ski season that may have
never been is finally reaching
its close.
After mountains closed
abruptly at the start of the pan-
demic in 2020, it was unclear
whether operations could be
sustained throughout an entire
COVID-19 winter. But in most
places, smart changes made
a big difference and fostered
successful winter seasons with
decent-if not quite normal-rev-
enue.
That’s certainly true at Vail
Resorts Inc. In early March,
the company that dominates
the U.S. ski scene reported
$147.8 million in net income
for the second quarter of
2021, a 28.4% decline year-
over-year. But season-wide,
skier visits were down only
8.2% compared to the previ-
ous year. Where the company
took its losses this year was in
ski school and dining offer-
ings, which took hits of 43%
and 57% respectively. Both are
parts of the mountain expe-
rience that rely more on close
human contact than, say, nav-
igating the Vail back bowls on
six-foot-long skis.
Still, the company’s relative
success-overall travel and tour-
ism was down 74% in 2020-re-
flects forward thinking across
the industry. In the pandemic’s
early days, ski industry execs
banded together to brainstorm
solutions for nearly every po-
tential point of COVID trans-
mission. Most implemented
new reservations systems, daily
skier caps, expanded apps
for food ordering, and even
“curbside” delivery services, in
which snowcats were deployed
to deliver pizzas to the pistes.
“We’re not going back to the
way we did business before,”
Vail Resorts Chief Executive
Officer Rob Katz said in an
interview. “This has been an
incredibly challenging year
for everyone on every level.
We’re coming away with a ton
of learnings that we’ll be able
to use.”
Days before Vail released its
Epic passes at a 20% discount
for the 2021-22 season, Katz
told pass holders in an emailed
statement that reservations
would no longer be required
for the winter-a particular frus-
tration for locals who struggled
to get access to the terrain in
their own backyards.
“While the reservation sys-
tem won’t stick around in the
same way, it taught us a lot
about how to reduce crowd-
ing and better manage capac-
ity,” Katz said. Some of the
technology that was used in
building that system will en-
dure, powering reservations
for on-mountain restaurants,
he said. “Everything this year
was constricting because of re-
strictions on social distancing,
but we can put these types of
policies in place to improve the
experience overall.”
Competitor Rusty Greg-
ory, CEO of Alterra Mountain
Co.-the entity behind the Ikon
pass-has publicly echoed those
sentiments, saying he envisions
future guests signing up for
spots in a virtual line for the
gondola and being able to pur-
chase goggles in the ski shop
while awaiting their turn. His
company is committing $30
million to expanding its digital
functionality, allowing not just
virtual lift lines but the ability
to “hail” a ski instructor on de-
mand, as you would an Uber.
Katz said he is quadrupling
the size of Vail’s customer sup-
port team-partially to deal with
delayed refund and cancella-
tion requests that burdened
his staff this year and partially
Michael Ciaglo/Bloomberg
Skiers head up an empty run in Vail, Colorado, on March 2020.
to form a stronger army ca-
pable of answering questions
in real time via text message,
WhatsApp, call, or any con-
ceivable platform.
“Centralized guest services
didn’t go well for us this year,”
Katz said. “Managing call cen-
ters, chat rooms, and all the
other things-it’s very difficult.
Guests want a response very
quickly for whatever issue they
are facing, and information
is one of the most import-
ant things we need to provide
them.”
Katz said the key to industry
growth lies in expanding ap-
peal to a wider net of consum-
ers while also reducing crowds.
And that’s not just a coronavi-
rus concern; nobody likes wait-
ing in long lift lines or skiing
on chewed-up terrain.
Those goals aren’t necessar-
ily at odds.
“One of the reasons the ski
business isn’t growing, or isn’t
growing fast, is because we
have mostly been seeing par-
ticipation in the White popula-
tion,” Katz explains, calling the
lack of diversity an “existential
threat and an opportunity” for
the industry at large. “Bringing
in guests is critical to our bot-
tom line, but that starts with
making sure our own company
is diverse-and that it’s attractive
to people of color.”
An internal audit that Vail
conducted “several years ago,”
said Katz, led to a better gender
split among leadership ranks,
including the company’s board,
where female representation
was “close to nonexistent” and
now is at roughly 50%. The
new diversity and inclusion
initiatives will focus on hiring,
engaging with social justice in
the political arena through an
internal political action com-
mittee, and expanding access
by offering complimentary lift
tickets to youth of color in the
resorts’ surrounding commu-
nities.
The latter is especially im-
portant. High prices have,
in many cases, been a bar-
rier to locals-of any back-
ground-when a mountain gets
acquired by such major com-
panies as Vail and Alterra. But
ski operators are realizing that
filling midweek chair lifts is the
best way to spread out crowds
while achieving higher num-
bers overall. Establishing loy-
alty with residents (rather than
the fly-in crowd) helps accom-
plish that goal.
During COVID-19, a more
affluent population flooded
many ski towns, taking up per-
manent residence in their va-
cation homes to ride out the
pandemic. That, in turn, kept
mountains busy, even during
typically “off” periods. In-
centivizing longer-term rent-
als, driving down season pass
prices, and building out appeal
for the towns themselves can
all help replicate that success in
future years.
Climate change remains
the greatest threat to the ski
industry, far outweighing
the pandemic, a threat to the
world’s stability, Katz said.
Asked to rank COVID-19, di-
versity challenges, and climate
concerns in order of severity,
Katz says there’s no doubt that
COVID-19 is the smallest con-
cern.
“Even if we do everything
perfect as it relates to the en-
vironment, we’re not going to
solve climate change on our
own, so we’re looking towards
being a leader and setting an
example for doing the right
thing,” he said of Vail’s com-
mitment to become a net zero
company by 2030, eliminating
all emissions and landfill waste,
as well as affects on forests and
habitat.
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