TOTAL WIPEOUT
Ski resorts from Catskills to Rockies forced to shut
With ski slopes shutting down from Aspen to the Catskills, revenues for local businesses are heading downhill fast.
“It’s been insane. We’re no longer a ski resort. We’re just a mountain town now,” Ryan Sweeney, co-owner of both a restaurant and a bar in Aspen, Colo., told the Daily News Monday.
“Everything has just come to a screeching halt,” Marianna Leman, chef and owner at Albergo Allegria Hotel near the shuttered Windham Mountain Resort in Windham, N.Y., said.
“All my reservations have canceled,” she said. “We have a staff of about 12, and right now, there’s nothing for them to do. I told them there are no hours.”
The sudden closures of major resorts, casinos, restaurants and theme parks is necessary amid the growing coronavirus pandemic but will push many businesses to the brink, experts say.
“In cities in Italy, 90% of sales have disappeared. If we go for a month like that here, the impact on U.S. tourism and hospitality will be in the tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars,” Christopher Muller, a professor at Boston University’s School of Hospitality, told The News.
He estimated a month of restaurant closures could cost $60 billion in the U.S., with hotels losing as much as $15 billion more.
“This is peak season for many tourist destinations around the country. March is a higher than usual month,” he said.
Sweeney said he and his partner are trying to be as proactive and nimble as possible. They closed their Silver City Mountain Saloon late Saturday night ahead of a government mandate and quickly retooled their Ryno’s pizza restaurant to takeout only.
“We made the decision Saturday night after we looked at our cameras and saw a big crowd. We knew it was irresponsible to provide an area for people to congregate like that,” he said.
“We’ve got a little war chest. We’re trying to adapt as much as possible. But rent and utilities don’t stop,” Sweeney said. “If we’re doing 25% of normal revenues and this lasts eight weeks or more, it might be a coin toss as to whether we survive.”
He said some seasonal staff from South Africa and Argentina working on J-1 exchange visas have already decided to leave rather than stick around and burn through savings.
“St. Patrick’s Day is usually a great time of year for us. Whatever we make in March usually floats us through April. Now we don’t have that income to float us through, and we’re getting cancellations in May and June. People are freaking out,” Leman said. “We just don’t know what’s coming down the line.”
The message on the Windham Mountain Resort website said the year’s ski season wasn’t just suspended but over for good.
“After much deliberation and consultation with industry and community partners regarding the COVID-19 global pandemic, we feel that this is the right thing to do,” the resort said on its website.
Leman (photo) said she’s trying to stay optimistic while also researching her options with a new takeout service.
“We’re still open!” she told The News Monday, saying she’s hopeful people living downstate will come to see her business as a viable option to get away from the city in a responsible way.
“There’s lots of room for social-distancing outside our four walls with gorgeous hiking and trails and waterfalls,” she said. “And I’ll be cooking for my guests!”