After a bleak November, ski resorts in Utah and other mountain states made it through the holidays in reasonably good shape, according to data from the Denver-based Mountain Travel Research Program.
The group's "Mountain Travel Monitor," released last week, determined December's occupancy rate at 15 destination resorts in Colorado, Utah, California and British Columbia was down 8.5 percent from the same month a year earlier. The average nightly rate dropped 4.8 percent.
"While the results are not as good as previous years, it was considerably 'less bad' than expected," said report author Ralf Garrision. " 'Less bad' is rapidly becoming the new 'good.' "
Expectations were much lower in early December when few areas had snow and October's collapse of the financial industry had left the Consumer Confidence Index at 38.0, tying an all-time low.
But then it started snowing throughout the West. Coupled with aggressive resort marketing campaigns that featured discounted lodging and other incentives, Garrison said the timely snowfall led to an upswing in late bookings.
With 64.3 percent more late bookings coming in during December, overall reservations for the month were significantly better than November's numbers. Without snow for Thanksgiving, the 216 property management companies in the survey reported that their November of bookings were 25 percent below the levels of November 2007, Garrison said.
"The bookings came at the eleventh hour, and the length of stays were much shorter than traditional holiday guests," he observed. "Most visitors came shorter distances and could react to the last-minute offers more effectively than long-distance travelers. Ultimately, lodging properties and resorts managed to fill many of their vacancies, and most resorts filled their slopes, as well."
Despite the encouraging numbers, Garrison said mountain resort occupancy for the season is down 18.1 percent. Advanced reservations remain worrisome, with bookings for January through April running 20 percent behind last year.
The latest survey of affluent travelers (household incomes above $150,000) by Ypartnership, a public relations and advertising company working within the travel industry, showed that:
29 percent will take more trips than last year
48 percent will take the same number
16 percent will take fewer trips
7 percent have no travel plans
