Vermont ski resorts hit in the pocketbook
Quarantine rules result in 30% drop in revenue for 2020-21 season
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the Green Mountains of Vermont a little less green.
As of the end of February, the 2020-21 ski season in Vermont saw a 30 percent overall dropoff in revenue, with losses estimated at $100 million, according to the Vermont Ski Areas
Association.
Year-to-year, paid skier visits declined by more than 40 percent, lodging revenues by 60 percent, and food and beverage revenues by 70 percent.
Additionally, “Steep visitation decreases during the three crucial peak periods of Christmas-new Years, the Martin Luther King Weekend and Presidents’ Week had a large impact. Average overall revenues were down by approximately 30 percent, with some ski areas reporting losses of as much as 60 percent,” according to the Association, which represents 19 Alpine ski and snowboard resorts and 30 crosscountry areas in the state.
Skiing is a major industry with an outsized impact on the state’s economy. While Vermont’s population is fewer than 632,000 people, the ski industry generates an estimated $1.9 billion per year.
New York by contrast, has more than 30 ski resorts, and a population of 19.46 million, was estimated to have a direct economic impact of just over $500
million in the 2016-17 season, according to a study by RRC Associates.
Vermont was hit especially hard by the closure of the Canadian border and its rigid quarantine rules for out of state visitors.
Those coming from out of state are supposed to quarantine for 14 days, although there are exceptions for essential, stay-at-home workers and for those who have been fully vaccinated.
The extent to which the quarantine is being enforced or policed is debatable but news of the policy kept many out-of-state skiers, who are the industry’s lifeblood, away.
Most of the quarantine remains in effect although those who have been vaccinated at least 14 days ago can now
visit.
“Overall skier visits decreased by approximately 20 percent due to increased season pass visits partially offsetting declines in day visits. However, this commonly reported statistic does not adequately tell the story of how our ski areas have fared this season,” said Molly Mahar, the Association’s president.
Vermont also contains several resorts that offer the Ikon or Epic season passes, which allow access to several different ski centers and have become popular in recent years.
“The federal border closure and the state’s travel restrictions were a big reason for the large declines in day ticket sales and lodging revenues; while indoor capacity and gathering limits hurt food and beverage and ski school,” Mahar said.
“With a business model that is already dependent on
weather and other factors beyond our control, a $100 million loss this season due to COVID is a difficult obstacle for Vermont’s ski areas to overcome. This comes on the heels of substantial losses from last season and very limited business over the summer and fall,” she added.
Additionally, the average number of employees at Vermont ski areas decreased by 35 percent this year. In a typical season, the state’s ski areas employ more than 13,000 people. “This reduction in jobs, combined with less skier traffic flowing to local businesses, has hurt the rural areas of our state where most ski areas are located,” she said.
Numbers of the season so far for New York and Massachusetts ski centers were not immediately available on Tuesday. A handful of resorts in Vermont and New York remain open.