The Bottom Line

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

By Sam Petri

Despite low snow and no tram, Jackson Hole Ski Resort reports its second busiest season.

Jackson Hole, Wyo--Ski resorts sell fantasies. Bluebird deep powder, family fun, relaxation or booze-fest fantasies can be found in every ski resort brochure from Maine to California.

Buy the ticket, take the ride, live the dream, even if for just a long weekend. Tourists travel thousands of miles, dropping plenty of cash, investing in their dream. This year is it, they think. Whether they come with their college buds, their newly formed family, or their spouse of 30 years, they come with their fantasy of fun.

For skiers and snowboarders, fun equals snow, and plenty of it. After you drink PBR in your condo all weekend because its raining in February, or your kid gets frostbite because it’s negative 20, or your wife breaks her wrist on blue-ice learning to snowboard, you’re going to find a way to make sure that next year your fantasy comes true.  

Industry wide, advanced booking times have become much shorter, with a requirement of about two weeks prior to your visit to book a ski-stay package, according to Breckenridge, Colo., Resort Communications Director Nicky DeFord.

This has created tourists who will go where the snow is most abundant, tourists who can book at the last possible minute, as opposed to months in advance.

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Communications Director Anna Olson contends that her outfit “taught them how to do that.” Indeed, with email blasts boasting new snow fall numbers and incentives to book now, most ski resorts are playing the game, too.  

Last season Breckenridge had 1.61 million skier visits, the second most in the industry and the most ever in the resort’s history. Sister resort, Vail, had 1.67 million skier visits, also a record and the most skier visits of any resort in America for the ’05-’06 ski season.

“Snow fall is in the top three, if not the most important thing,” said DeFord of attracting tourists to come skiing.

The ’05-’06 snow season was epic for most of the Rockies, including JHMR, which had record-breaking skier visits of its own, clocking in at 455,000, its best season ever. This year, JHMR had their second best season to date, at least as far as that skier visits measurement goes, with 402,400 skier visits. Quite the accomplishment with no tram, no Walk Festival Hall, a still unopened restaurant on top of the gondola, and, most importantly, a low snow fall year.

Despite having their second best skier visits number, destination skier visits were down, though season pass holder visits were slightly up from last year. That means fewer tourists came and more locals skied.

In a press release, JHMR President Jerry Blann said, “We anticipated a slight reduction in business this winter due to the reconstruction of the tram, but with the additional challenge of low snow, we had to work incredibly hard to meet our goals. As we reflect on the season, we believe the snow was the largest single determining factor for our business levels.”

It was all looking good in December, with snow pack levels relatively on track and skiers still able to reach the summit of the mountain, even without the tram. Then the snow stopped flying. January, usually the snowiest month in the Tetons, was dry. Airline and hotel bookings reflect the fact that tourists watch the weather with a keen eye, and will change or cancel their plans last minute.

According to statistics provided by Jackson Hole Airport Assistant Director Jeanne Kirkpatrick, January deplanments – the number of people who step off commercial airlines at the Jackson Hole Airport – were down 13 percent from January 2006.

Enplanements were also down in January, with 5 percent less people boarding flights in Jackson Hole.

Deplanements were down 17 percent in February, compared to 2006 numbers, and February enplanements were also down 14 percent from last year. In March, deplanements were down 15 percent from last year, and enplanments were down 14 percent.

Those stats correlate with hotel capacity levels. January occupancy levels were down 6.87 percent from last year, according to the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce. February occupancy levels were down 15.37 percent.

March and April occupancy levels are yet to be complied. As Four Seasons Communications Director Kim Hoffman said, “We were down from last year, clearly it was the weather.” Hoffman went on to say that people didn’t call to book reservations after February, that people who were looking to book in March didn’t book in February.

Other businesses in Teton Village offered a mixed bag. Alpenhof Restaurant Manager Joseph Arseneaux said that this season was “a lot slower – looking out the window there were quite a few less people.” But he contended that, although last year was one of the best years in a while as far as rooms booked, this year was on par with the prior two seasons, and fairly average.  

“The only thing that was a bummer was not getting snow,” said Wildernest Sports hard goods manager Nathan Gauthier. “People buy stuff when it’s snowing,” he went on to say. “We deal with a lot of locals … the diehards were still here.” Gauthier said business levels stayed even with previous years and that over all Wildernest had a good winter season.

Chris Jay, manager of Jack Dennis Sports, cited classic holidays such as Christmas and Presidents’ Weekend as profitable, but admitted that business was a bit sporadic. “You got to have sand in the sand box to sell your toys,” he said.

January business slowed due to the deep freeze, but picked up in late February, when we got that big dump. He said business slowed again in March, but overall was a decent winter.

Soon the new tram will be done, and so will the Couloir Restaurant on top of the Bridger Gondola. Walk Festival Hall will reopen, and we’ll have another big dumping season. With all the new improvements, JHMR is “looking to grow skier visits substantially,” said Anna Olson.

But as American writer Eric Hoffer once penned, “Let the desires be few and treat expectations as weeds.”

For some retailers, little snow reveals the visitor

By Ben Cannon

If a recent informal Planet Jackson Hole survey of local businesses on and around Jackson’s Town Square reveals anything, it might be that there is a little but not a tremendous amount of rhyme or reason to how “below average” snowfall affects local businesses during the winter tourism season.

Or, it might suggest that there is decidedly and increasingly a type of tourist in town who – though relatively few in numbers – has more fiscal swagger to keep many Jackson Hole business afloat (nay, thriving) when the stars fail to align for an epic winter.

While Teton Village at the base of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in the winter caters predominately to those who come to the area for skiing – the same visitors who might plan or opt out of a vacation according to the prevailing conditions – many of the businesses on the relatively quiet east side of Jackson reported a cold season of brisk sales.

“We were happy with our winter,” Jackson Hole Clothiers manager Glenda Harmon said cheerfully. Harmon hinted that sales at the store she helps run were actually quite good, but, conscious that other retailers might have taken a hit from less tourist traffic than usual, declined to comment further.

Across the Square, John Hoggan has owned Jackson Mercantile for the last eight years. His is the kind of shop that sells “Jackson Hole” T-shirts and hats, as well as quirky Western goods and furnishings and fixtures from antler pieces.

“It was the best winter we’ve had since we’ve been here,” he said. Hoggan estimated that that the volume of people wandering through his shop was down 15 to 20 percent from last year’s visitors, but those who did pass through generated a banner winter retail season for him.

“There are more upper-middle class and affluent people here now,” he said, speculating on how less people could make for a record-setting season. “I don’t know what happened this year, but I think it’s the attraction of Jackson Hole – the escalation of property values and the Four Seasons probably has some impact.”

And there is some hard evidence to back up Hoggan’s claim. 

A couple of weeks ago, Andy Knudtsen, a senior consultant with Economic & Planning Systems, addressed the town and county Joint Information Meeting on the rather unrelated issue of affordable housing in Jackson Hole.

“The new visitor to Jackson Hole is more affluent,” Knudtsen said, citing second home data, as well as the considerable increase in private jet usage, up 59 percent over the last years.

Many businesses surveyed reported average or better than average winter sales, even on the heels of last year’s vibrant winter tourism. In fact, sales tax revenue was up 9 percent this February from the same time last year, according to the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce. Like any statistic, that is no straightforward figure to lean on, but it is a relevant indicator nonetheless.

Occupancy rates for area lodging was down almost 7 percent for January and 15 percent in February (March data is not yet available) from the same time last year. This would coincide with observations of many long-time business owners that the Town of Jackson was, by and large, a place lacking people this winter.

Gisela Siwek owns Crazy Horse, a jewelry store tucked off the Square in Gaslight Alley. Flipping through her hand-penciled books that go back a decade, Siwek, as if taking every season in stride, had no formed opinion of how her business fared these last months.

“It didn’t seem busy, but I think we came out OK,” she said, her books clearly revealing that sales were more or less on par with previous years. “It was slow in February, but busy in March and January.”

Certainly, though, not all local shops are looking back fondly at what some might call a dead winter. 

“The traffic was down,” said Mill Valley Sheepskin and Leather owner Kevin Gilday.  His business is located just off the northeast corner of the Square. Gilday has operated his store at that location for 15 years and said that his winter sales were disappointing, if not down remarkably.

“My suspicion is that [local hotels] are pricing themselves out of the market,” keeping the volumes of tourists away. “It’s not cheap anymore, Jackson isn’t.”

Others were skeptical to hear that most of the businesses sampled around the Town Square – from candy shop to high-end Western art gallery – reported strong sales seasons.

“I’d be surprised if it was a great year for a lot of these businesses,” said one gallery worker who wished to not have her name used. Having worked at several retail businesses over the year, she knew of at least one that had suffered with low sales. She noted that her current employer, a larger gallery, had fared well, but that a gallery she knew had struggled “wasn’t high end at all.”

At the West Lives On, a consignment gallery one block west of the Town Square across from the Wort Hotel, Terry Ray has been in business 10 years.

“This was the biggest January we ever had,” Ray said. He noted a slump in February but said that March bounced back. What is more, Ray said, even as many have already left Jackson for the quiet off-season, his gallery is having “the biggest April by far.” While his, like similar local galleries, is able to diversify somewhat through online sales, Ray said most of his clientele comes from those who live in Jackson only part of the year.

“A lot of our business is people who buy houses here and who are in and out of their second homes,” he said.

But there are a handful of retailers occupying some of Jackson’s more prime commercial real estate that rely more on a local customer base, and some of them had strong winter seasons without having to attach any notion of the wealthy tourist or second home owner. 

Managers at both Leslie, a women’s clothing store, and Accentuate, a ladies’ accessories shop, both said they had a strong winter season through mainly repeat local clientele.

At Lily and Company, Sarajane Johnson has a boutique sweet with scented candles and floral arrangements. February marked her fourth year in business.

“We actually had a really exceptional year,” Johnson said. In the wintertime especially, she depends on floral arrangement sales, and many of those are associated with newborns.

And this winter, she said, there were plenty of new Jackson Hole natives who might one day help balance the divide between local and visitor.

“There were lots of babies being born,” she said

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