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Christmas snow entices visitors
Last minute bookings bump business up; Brownlie predicts strong ‘very strong’ demand after Olympics
by Claire Piech
Page 2 of 3
It's too early for Whistler Blackcomb to say where most visitors to the mountains came from, but Brownlie suspects a large number of people were from the Lower Mainland and Washington State.
"The word of mouth has been great," said Brownlie. "Generally, on the final weekend it starts to drop off, but what we saw Saturday (Jan. 3) was our busiest day of the holiday season because everyone in Vancouver heard about what great conditions we had here."
Brownlie said the Christmas experience bodes well for the rest of the ski season.
He predicted that January and February will be busier than he initially thought and that Whistler Blackcomb will see a "very strong" finish to the season after the Olympic Games wrap up at the end of February.
"I think there will be pent-up demand for people who didn't come to Whistler and they will have heard about it and seen it on TV and all the great snow and all the great stories," said Brownlie. "They will work hard to get here."
Meanwhile, hotels in Whistler saw a large number of last minute bookings.
The Fairmont Chateau Whistler reported picking up 187 extra room nights over the holiday period - up from last year's 78 - as well as 20 per cent more business than what was scheduled for their food and beverage outlets.
Lynn Gervais, director of public relations for the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, said the last minute pick up allowed the hotel to actually break several personal business records.
"On the food and beverage side, we ended up serving 1,000 meals a day through the festival season, which was incredible," said Gervais. "Mallard Lounge had its biggest revenue day ever at New Year's Eve and The Chalet, where we do our fondue dinner, was sold out every single day."
Unlike the Chateau, the Hilton Whistler Resort and Spa didn't break any records, but Andrew Glass, director of sales and marketing, said his hotel was sold out from Dec. 27 through Dec. 31.
"I would say in terms of occupancy, we were 10 per cent up from last year," said Glass.
Sundial Boutique hotel also shared a similar story of last minute bookings as a result of weather.
"The trend since last year at this time has been for late bookings, so we were feeling that would continue," said Glen Iles. "I think everything about Whistler right now is very positive, with the Olympics, the early snow, and the recession ending. We are very positive on the way the outlook is."
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