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Other departments have also recorded significant growth departments/activities for summer revenue nationally are
over the past decade on a per-visit basis, including retail food and beverage ($1.2 million on average, down 4.2 No risky up front payments, painless
stores (up 82.9 percent), lift tickets (up 45.8 percent), food percent) and accommodations/ lodging ($1 million, down NEVER TOO LATE TO
and beverage (up a similar 43.6 percent), lessons (up 34.9 3.1 percent). These departments are related to weddings, HAVE BESTINCLASS implementation and the only
percent), rental shops (up 26.2 percent), and accommoda- meetings, and other summer group business, which are a e-commerce software backed by
tions/lodging (up 18.5 percent). These results indicate the major component of summer business at some ski areas. ECOMMERCE a company solely focused on lift ticket
consistency with which revenue growth has occurred across Average visits during the summer nationally were 53,198 pricing and marketing performance.
various ski area departments. per responding ski area, up 5.3 percent from 50,497 last WITH CLOUD STORE
summer. The most important contributor to total summer
SUMMER/FALL REVENUE visits is one that takes advantage of the existing uphill BY LIFTOPIA
Summer/Fall Revenues Up transportation system: scenic chairlift rides (17,406 visits, up
Interest in understanding the current impact and future 9.7 percent). Smaller levels of average visits were noted for
potential of non-winter operations remains high in the mountain biking (4,654 visits), golf (6,096 rounds played),
industry as ski resorts take advantage of their assets during alpine slide/mountain coaster (6,181 visits), and zip lines/
the summer and fall months. Many ski areas are undergoing canopy tours (3,552 visits).
a transformation into four-season resorts, by adding summer/
fall activities, events, festivals, and conferences. Some PROFIT LEVELS
advantages of more extensive operations include year-round Distribution of Profit
employment, higher utilization of fixed assets, more diverse Fewer ski areas reported a loss in the 2016-17 season as com-
revenue streams, and reduced seasonality of those revenue pared to the 2015-16 season. One-quarter of reporting ski
streams. Nationally, 85 percent of all ski areas operate in the areas reported a loss at the pre-tax profit level for the 2016-
non-winter months, and among that group of resorts, the 17 year, down from one-third of ski areas that reported a loss
summer period contributes 11.7 percent to annual revenue, in 2015-16. Of those ski areas that were profitable at the pre-
up slightly from 11.6 percent last year. tax profit level, half (or 37.5 percent of all ski areas in the
Of those ski resorts with non-winter operations, the study) reported profit of under $3 million, and the remain-
average level of summer revenue is $4.4 million, down 4.9 ing half of profitable ski areas posted profit of $3 million or
percent from $4.6 million in 2015-16. The two largest more. In addition, 19 percent of resorts earned a profit of

Figure 3
Departmental Revenue per Visit & 10-Year Percent Change
YEAR GROSS REVENUE CHANGE: .

$120
$110.22
$106.61 Other Gross (26.9%) COLLABORATIVE
$100 $100.85 CUSTOM SOLUTIONS
$85.87 $87.50 $90.50 Accommodations/Lodging (18.5%) Customizable, dynamic pricing with Virtually no downtime and
payment redundancy
unlimited tiers and time-based changes
$80 $77.56 $74.68 $73.99 $77.23 Rental Shops (26.2%) Real-time reporting dashboards Optional outsourced Customer Support
Retail Stores (82.9%) NO UPFRONT COSTS AND and custom analytics Training + ongoing resort
$60 Food & beverage (43.6%) A FLEXIBLE FEE STRUCTURE Dated search & calendar browse support included
Lessons (34.9%) user interfaces Season Pass support with a simplified
$40 Responsive, mobile optimized design process for waivers, photos and
Snowplay & other winter ops (103.7%)
LEVERAGE OUR Fully PCI DSS 3.0 compliant pre-fulfillment
$20 Tickets (45.8%)
ANALYTICS TEAM
$0
’07/’08 ’08/’09 ’09/’10 ’10/’11 ’11/’12 ’12/’13 ’13/’14 ’14/’15 ’15/’16 ’16/’17

Contact us to learn why Cloud Store is right for you:
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48 | NSAA JOURNAL | SPRING 2018