According to Bill Malone*, President and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau, “droves of spring break vacationers and people visiting from Latin American countries led to a successful March”. Malone expects to see increased visitors from Australia due to Vail Resort’s recent acquisition of Perisher, Australia’s largest ski resort.
Although March is always a big month for visitors to Park City, I found it fascinating that in his recent interview with the Park Record, Bill Malone specifically cited visitors from Latin America, Australia and New Zealand. In my casual conversations with people on Park City’s ski lifts, many told me that they were visiting Park City for the first time using their “Epic” ski pass. These visitors had traditionally vacationed in Colorado, but wanted to give Park City a try since it was included on their ski pass. Vail’s Epic pass is sold in 50 countries around the world. In a recent press release, Vail’s CEO, Rob Katz noted, “..we are pleased with the double-digit visitation and revenue growth at Park City, following our transformational capital investments.”
It is difficult to draw visitors to Park City the first time. However, once first-time visitors experience the charm of Park City and the ease of traveling to our resorts, it is likely they will return. There is also that possibility that they will like Park City so much, they will want to invest in a permanent or vacation home in Park City and become part of our community. Vail’s acquisition of Park City Resort and the presence of the Epic Pass in Park City is truly a game changer for our community.
*Source, Park Record, March 26-29, 2016
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Vail has made park city, what used to be a safe haven for locals and pros, into a tourist attraction. I can’t go to my local ski resort any more without being yells at by a yellow jacket for skiing “too fast”. I have friends who have had their passes revoked for the entire season because their family member from out of state wanted them to show them around and the vail employees thought they were giving a lesson for cash. Both to mention the employees! I worked there for less then a month and lost all my respect for the resort i grew up with. The management and corporate are on two completely different pages and don’t respect the hard work their employees deserve, many people (like me) quit halfway through the season because they wouldn’t acknowledge our needs, not just as employees, but as people. There were days when I worked the goddamn gondola, a thankless job to most spoiled people who have the money to go on a vacation every other week, without taking any breaks because we were so short staffed, and still somehow got yelled at by our manager afterwards (who, no joke, has a personality like trump). My thoughts on the matter as someone who has grown up with this resort since childhood, and has been inside their business, is they they have officially sucked the life and fun out of park city mountain resort. I Don’t plan on skiing there next year….