Despite British broadsheet reports at the start of the month of closed slopes in France over Christmas and New Year, the world’s largest ski resort operator, the French Compagnie des Alpes group, have announced early season skier numbers were up, and that sales from tickets were up even more.
“Sales were boosted by the first snowfall at the beginning of the season and good weather conditions over the Christmas school holidays,” a statement from the Compagnie des Alpes, which runs many of the world’s largest ski areas, reads, continuing, “Indeed, the 2018/2019 ski season got off to a satisfactory start under good conditions: snow fell early enough in the mountains and cold cycles allowed for the operation of snow resources at all ski resorts.”
The Compagnie des Alpes, said its overall sales were up 16.6% to €54.6 M from €46.8 M for the start of the ski season compared to the same period last year. Income for lift pass sales from the French company which runs most of the world’s biggest ski regions also rose by +16.6% compared with the 1st quarter of the previous year. However the number of skier days only rose by +4.2%, indicating the company was taking more money per ski day than previously.
Seeing increased sales revenue, on average, per skier day is a trend visible across the big ski resort operating groups with Vail Resorts in North America and Skistar in Scandinavia among those also posting sales revenue rising faster than the number of skiers on the slopes of the resorts they operate over the past year.
It is unclear from published figures how much of this revenue growth is down to price rises and how much to efficiency savings.