Total skier tally tops 20-year high
By Hayden Seder
Sun Valley Resort’s 2018-2019 winter season wrapped up on Sunday, April 21, with the last day’s large crowds basking in sunshine, listening to live music and adorned in fun costumes. Record-setting snowfall in February and one of the highest skier counts to date in the past 20 years had stakeholders calling the season a big success.
Several factors helped contribute to the success of the season, not least of which was the good weather that provided high snowfall all season long. According to a press release from Sun Valley Resort, the number of skiers and riders at Sun Valley this season was one of the highest in the past 20 years with over 426,500 skiers days tallied this season and a record-setting snowfall of 136 inches in February.
“We appreciate the support of our guests, Mother Nature and the dedication of our outstanding resort team for making this an exceptional season,” said Tim Silva, Sun Valley Resort’s vice president and general manager. “We had one of our strongest seasons to date with record-setting snow in February and conditions that kept the momentum going through spring.”
Another possible factor contributing to higher numbers of skiers this season was an increase in flights and passengers this winter. According to Carol Waller, director of the Fly Sun Valley Alliance, Friedman Memorial Airport (SUN) had a 12 percent increase in seats this past winter (Nov-March) due to the addition of the Delta third daily flight from Salt Lake City that was added for the period of October through March.
“We had an estimated 3 percent increase in passengers for the winter season,” Waller said. “We know from past airline and air passenger survey data that the increase in our air service with new nonstop flight markets and service expansion over the past five years has directly related to an increase in new and repeat visitors to Sun Valley.”
Waller and the rest of the Alliance are in the process of short- and long-term planning for air service at SUN.
“We hope to build on the positive results we have achieved to date and will continue to seek new potential opportunities to continue to increase business through air service and marketing,” Waller said.
While the resort did have some of the highest skier days it has ever seen, there has been criticism of its ability to compete with other similar ski resorts. Ralf Garrison, a consultant in the mountain resort industry for several decades, discussed the resort’s problems in terms of marketing and keeping up with competition at a Sun Valley Economic Development forum at the Limelight Hotel in April. Garrison was contracted last October by Visit Sun Valley to use the data he has accumulated over the years to inform the organization about how they’re doing and how Sun Valley is doing based on certain metrics.
While Garrison has seen the numbers that Sun Valley Resort boasts of its record-breaking year, he is quick to point out that the mountain had more skier days and not necessarily more visitors and that part of the growth may have been the same number of people simply skiing more.
“It could be that there are more people skiing, but that’s an important distinction,” Garrison said. “People skiing more doesn’t help the economy.”
Garrison also said that other mountain resorts reported a similar 10- to 15-percent increase in volume as Sun Valley Resort did, suggesting that the snow this season was responsible for more skiers rather than efforts made by the resort specifically.
In an effort to continue to keep visitors interested in the Sun Valley area and entice new ones to the area, the resort will cease its participation in the Mountain Collective pass and join the EPIC pass next season. In the long run, Garrison has posited numerous changes Sun Valley could make to the mountain, such as meeting capacity on more skier days, but the consultant is hopeful looking to next season.
“The opportunities for this coming winter look really good to me,” Garrison said.