Word: snow
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...skiing areas. But resort operators were delighted nevertheless, because the storm whetted the appetite of all those coastal skiers. The industry calls it the "backyard syndrome," and it can either feed or starve the sport in a given year. The backyard syndrome stipulates that if you can't see snow in your backyard, you won't think of going skiing, whatever the economy. If the flakes are falling, however, you'll get silly for the slopes. "Snow makes skiers act irrationally," says Ralf Garrison, director of the Mountain Travel Research Program, which compiles lodging data from ski resorts...
...think a $90 lift ticket and two nights at a lodge would be a luxury. But luckily for ski-resort operators, the flakes have been flush this season. Most U.S. resorts are reporting above-average snowfalls. (Northstar-at-Tahoe, in the Sierras, clocked in with 3 ft. of new snow March 4-5.) So while revenues have slipped - particularly at retail shops and restaurants - fewer people are fleeing skiing than you'd think. Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association, an industry trade group, projects that total lift-ticket purchases will decline 5% to 6% this season...
...Through Jan. 31, March reservations were down an alarming 29% for the Western resorts - traditionally a period of great snow and warmer temperatures. "Good snow helped fuel a slew of last-minute bookings around Christmas," says Garrison, the Mountain Travel Research Program director. "Who knows if the snow will save the day again...
...Last winter, skiers and snowboarders bought a record 60.5 million lift tickets. A 6% drop would translate to some 57 million tickets sold, a figure that would beat the 55.1 million total in 2006-07, a season when the economy was still frothy but the snow was lousy. Further, in the 30 years the National Ski Areas Association has tracked such data, the industry has sold more than 57 million tickets during just six seasons, each occurring in this decade. "At the end of the day, there's an adage among operators," says Berry. "They'd rather have good snow...
...powder has really propped up Eastern operators, who have been bopped with a series of big storms. "East of the Mississippi, we're seeing [snow] levels at or above record levels," says Berry. New York and New England resorts have several advantages during a recession. First, they're cheaper than the higher-end destinations like Aspen and Vail in Colorado. Second, they're within driving distance of huge metropolitan areas such as New York City and Boston. Mount Snow in Vermont, for example, is a four-hour trip from New York City and a two-hour trek from Boston...