Holiday numbers have been solid but some businesses worried about new year
If you’ve felt that there’s been more room to carve your turns on the mountains, more room to strut your stuff in the village, and a better chance of getting a room at the last minute in one of the resort’s posh hotels you’re right on the money.
However, those lamentable facts mean that others are not in the money and some businesses in the resort are worried about what the next few weeks will mean for Whistler.
"We are very, very nervous about January," said Sandy Black of the Affinity Group, which owns Affinity Sports Rentals and several other retail and service outlets in Whistler.
"We think that come Jan. 5 th it is going to be like somebody flipped a switch. Typically the first two to three weeks of January are slow for us anyway, now add to that the (strong Canadian) dollar, our competition situation, and all the other things and we could be in for a tough three or four weeks."
Black believes the high cost of the resort and the amenities it offers, international events, the strong dollar, strong competition from other local and regional ski hills, and a falling number of destination travellers are amounting to some serious challenges for Whistler.
Sun Peaks in the Interior announced that it broke its visitors-per-day record on Dec 28 th hosting 5,300 guests. Tickets there are just $55 a day for an adult. One package deal offers one night’s accommodation and a lift ticket for $89.
"We just all need to pay attention to the value of this place and pay attention to balance," said Black.
"We need to pay attention to the regional guest. I think we need to spend more time on the Vancouver guest and I think we also need to continue to cater to the destination guest.
"We have a great experience here, probably one of the best in North America. But a $71 lift ticket is expensive. You go to dinner and it’s tough to find an entrée for under $25. I had an $8 beer the other day. We all collectively need to look at this and rentals the same.
"The world has changed. It is a different place. We had orange security alerts in the U.S. through Christmas, SARS, mad cow, the strong dollar, and we are expensive, and we are hard to get to and there are fewer destination travellers out there.
"Add all that together and we’ve got a problem."
While Affinity stores are busy said Black, especially compared to last year, they are still not moving ahead the way they should be compared to previous years.
It’s a trend already seen in other resorts such as Vail in Colorado, said Black. Part of the answer, Black believes, is to learn from Vail’s experience and craft a response to the challenges facing Whistler as a community.
The Denver Post recently reported Colorado resorts had a six-year loss of 1.23 million foreign and out-of-state skiers. The losses come as visits to ski resorts across North America are at record levels.
To help stem losses many Colorado resorts slashed pass prices and increased regional visits. But local skiers don’t spend the way destination skiers do and losses have continued.
"I think the bloom came off the rose in Colorado because we got complacent," the Denver Post quotes David Perry, chief operating officer for Aspen Skiing Company, as saying.
"The second homes were growing the visitors were more and more affluent. We kept charging more. It was like we never thought it would stop.
"Collectively we were all guilty in Colorado of losing sight of what built our success: Being creative and being innovative."
Brett Morley of Whistler’s Canadian Snowmobile Adventures said business does look slow for the next couple of weeks. But a strong Christmas period, with several sold out days are keeping him optimistic.
The company has also made a concerted effort this year to be seen in the resort, to tap into the on-going trend of travellers booking at the last minute and waiting until they get to their destination to book activities.
"You have really got to make whatever activity you are trying to sell look the most fun or the thing to do," said Morley, the marketing manager.
He also believes winning the right to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, along with Vancouver, is helping this year. Guests are asking about event sites in the resort and some are signing up for backcountry trips to the Callaghan valley, the future site of the Nordic centre for the Games.
But still the uncertain booking patterns are a challenge.
"The reality is that from month to month you don’t know," said Morley.
"It makes it challenging when you are trying to look ahead to where you are going to be.
"It’s difficult when you are looking at buying everything from machinery to advertising and you need to be optimistic that it is going to be good, but you also need to be somewhat on the reserved side so that you’re not going to get too far ahead of yourself.
"So it is a really tough balance."
It’s also tough to plan staffing when beyond the obvious long weekends and holiday times it’s almost impossible to gauge how busy it will be.
The start of the New Year, a traditional slow period in Whistler, is keeping true to form for the Pan Pacific as well.
"The first two weeks are relatively soft then we have a relatively strong end to the month, so it looks like we will achieve our revenue numbers for the month," said Tim Morrison, who has just joined the hotel from the Pan Pacific in Vancouver.
The beginning of December was also soft, said Morrison. But Christmas was strong and the on-going trend of people walking in for bookings, or making reservations just a few days out could be clearly seen, he said.
November was down too, said Morrison, with Washington State visits down 9 per cent over last year in the resort.
A key part to keeping businesses hopping is beyond anyone’s control: the weather. So far steady snow has kept local, regional and destination skiers happy.
While skier numbers were off on some days leading up to Christmas, good snow and the holidays kept numbers over 20,000 per day for the Christmas weekend and the beginning of this week.
"We can easily handle 20,000 without their being any stress points in terms of restaurants, lifts or line-ups and (on Monday) we had significantly more than that and there still was no stress on the overall system," said Stuart Rempel, vice president of marketing and sales for Whistler-Blackcomb.
"Looking at the long-term weather models and the way the economy has stabilized, and hopefully there aren’t any man-made or natural disasters along the way, we think business in January, February, March and April could be reasonable in terms of the destination business.
"On the regional side I think we are going to have a strong regional year because of the conditions that we have."
There’s no doubt that conditions are better overall this season than they were last season.
But the trend of booking close to vacation dates and the strong Canadian dollar is having an impact on skier visit numbers in the destination market.
"I would say our destination business isn’t growing as much as our regional business," said Rempel.
"Some of the issues we have with the destination market are airfares, and how the dollar is affecting the business."
Good snow will keep the regional skiers coming to the mountains said Rempel, and the strong skiing numbers being experienced at the North Shore mountains will be good for Whistler.
"It is great to see the local mountains be successful," said Rempel.
"They are a great breeding area of skiers and snowboarders and we hope those skiers and snowboarders aspire to come to Whistler and experience the two huge mountains that we have here."
But, said Rempel, the resort must keep its balance of destination and regional travellers.
"The resort as a whole relies on the pre-committed long haul business in balance with the regional and local market," said Rempel.
"And we definitely need the hotels and the tour operator businesses to be successful for us to be successful too."
No one from Tourism Whistler was available for comment.
