The case for a Greater Park City interconnect

In spite of a snow-record year, the Park City Chamber/Bureau is projecting lodging numbers to be down about 14 percent during the first two weeks of March compared to the previous year. While in the recent past, March used to be the biggest month of the winter season, it has now dropped to second place. This suggests that there might be lodging oversupply through the Mountain West, including the flurry of new Western Canadian resorts added in recent years.

In a universe where all resorts look pretty much the same and quickly suffer from skiers and riders “fatigue,” this makes the entire market much more competitive and ends up spreading a quasi-stagnant volume on a fast growing number of resorts and beds, which explains that outside of the December Holiday Season, President’s Week and Spring Break, business becomes a bit thinner in and around Park City.

Faced with that, what should our community do in order to maximize its capacity and increase revenue? Do what’s the easiest, and re-engineer its product by interconnecting our three mountains and instilling a new sense of adventure instead of just going up and down the same hills the old-fashioned way. With a reasonable investment (a few connecting lifts and a common ski-pass processing system) our town could easily be vaulted into the number one destination resort in North America, leaving Vail and Whistler-Blackcomb far behind, at a very safe distance, and this not just because we’d offer the largest skiable acreage, but also through a vastly superior ease of access, great terrain variety and significant options for future expansion (by adding Brighton, Solitude, Snowbird and Alta later on to the network).

Our visitation would more than double and Utah could take a big chunk of market share away from its competition, guaranteeing a longer, busier and more profitable winter season for all, along with keeping real estate values up. Furthermore, there is no risk to the operation; it started almost half a century ago in Europe, has been thoroughly tested, and everywhere it’s been done, has been a screaming success!

From JF Lanvers' blog