Summit County community gets insight into what ski season tourism could look like
A lodging data platform gave an outlook of what the season could look like and said revenue management will be key this year as it looks as though the average daily rate people are paying to stay in Summit is decreasing
Officials, businesses, ski resorts and community members were told to expect ski season tourism to cool down a bit as tourism industries across the world are seeing a return to pre-pandemic rates following a boom over the last couple years.
Key Data’s Destination Partner Success Manager Katie Barnes gave community stakeholders an outlook on the season based on her organization’s data and industry sentiment at the Ski Area COO Summit on Friday, Oct. 4.
Barnes kicked off her presentation with a general overview of tourism before diving into data from her organization. She said Key Data works with 70 property managers, representing 6,300 short-term rentals in Summit County. Key Data is able to gather Summit-specific data on aspects such as average daily rate, total nights booked and more through working with these properties. While Key Data doesn’t work with every single short-term rental in Summit, it works with a majority of them and can paint a fairly comprehensive outlook of the lodging industry.
“The CEOs of some of the major travel brands, like Hilton, TripAdvisor, Disney, are all talking about a softening or moderating, or a normalization of travel, not necessarily a downturn,” Barnes said. “So we know we’ve been on this big, huge Covid boom of travel, and it’s been great, but as you’ll see in the data, things are maybe coming down a little, back to 2019 levels.”
She said the good news is that the industry has seen in some cases that travel is “potentially recession resistant,” meaning people still reserve a part of their budget for travel even amid signs of an economic downturn.
She said September travel numbers across mountain destinations have seen the largest decline they have seen in the last three years, and for Summit County there was a 14% dip in lodging occupancy year-over-year.
Barnes added other similar mountain communities such as Aspen, Avon, Beaver Creek, Crested Butte, Snowmass, Steamboat, Telluride, Mountain Village, Winter Park and Vail saw a drop an approximate 5% drop lodging occupancy.
While occupancy was down, the summer season average daily rate paid by visitors for Summit was up to $218 a day from $213 a day last year.
Barnes also gave an outlook on the upcoming season based on Summit booking data her organization got from the county’s short-term rentals. She noted most years people are booking vacations months in advance and this can provide a snapshot of what the season could look like.
Winter occupancy pacing is up 3% year-over-year and up 25% from the 2018-19 season, she said. She said the winter occupancy pacing is similar to that in other Colorado resort towns.
Key Data’s pacing for Summit’s average daily rates showed a 6% drop from last ski season, decreasing from an average daily rate of $541 to $510.
“The rest of Colorado is pacing up in rates and still way up from the (2018-19) season, so revenue management is going to be kind of the key this year,” she said.
Barnes said analyzing average daily rate is important to understand what people are paying to come skiing.
“That will maybe determine whether they do actually slap that credit card down and make the trip or not,” she said.
She added people in the lodging industry in charge of controlling average daily rates will have to balance aiming to keep occupancy high and determining which rates are suitable to keep operations going.
She said the data they have now helps provide an idea of what the season could look like, but it could shape out differently, noting she wished she had a crystal ball and could say exactly how it will look.
Barnes additionally gave the audience a look into how property managers in destinations across the country are feeling about the state of tourism. She said thousands of property managers were surveyed and asked the question: “What business or market challenges could prevent you from achieving your 2025 goals?”
“Almost 90% said economic slowdown or decreased demand,” Barnes said of the results. “So there’s concern out there amongst property managers.”
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