Winter tourism forecast down from years past

“I’m glad we’re doing this today, and not two weeks ago”

Cold and cloudy might be the summary of Crested Butte’s winter tourism forecast, but there are a few signs of warmth.

Crested Butte Mountain Resort is seeing a hefty drop in bookings for large groups and conferences, but a potential increase in regular vacation travelers like families and couples could even things out.
The area’s second largest lodging operation, Crested Butte Lodging and Property Management, has seen an increase in group bookings, but overall numbers are still trailing behind two years past.
Ticket sales for flights into the local airport are down overall from last year, but have risen dramatically in the last few weeks.
There was certainly optimism in the air at the Winter Tourism Forecast sponsored by the Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce on October 15.
Crested Butte Nordic Center director Keith Bauer was the first to present. He said over the last few years the Nordic Center has been focusing heavily on improving its product, rather than marketing the business. But Bauer says, “Our product is finally at the point we feel confident to market it and bring in people for some events.”
One of those events is the Thanksgiving training camp. Bauer said the Nordic Center had a special agreement with Gunnison County to plow Kebler Pass Road up to the turn-off to Irwin, which should improve the skiing opportunities for the camp. “A lot of times we end up holding the camp, we hold it on marginal conditions. We should get some pretty good skiing up there,” Bauer said, adding that he’s hoping to get more than 100 people to attend this year.
In December, Bauer says, the Rocky Mountain Nordic Skiing Association will bring more than 300 high school athletes and their parents for races on the Nordic Center’s extensive trail network.
Bauer said he was also excited about the Alley Loop in February, which should draw 400 participants total and more than 100 from out of town. He also highlighted trips to the yurt at Magic Meadows as an inexpensive activity. For $60 visitors can rent equipment and head out to the yurt for dinner provided by Maxwell’s. The dinner is $40 for locals.
Bauer says the Nordic Center doesn’t really get many advance bookings. “Just feeling it out I’d say it’s on par or above last year… Our season pass sales are 10 percent above where they were last year at this time. We’re affordable and I think we have a good product,” he said.
Matt MacDonald, group sales director for Crested Butte Lodging, continued on Bauer’s optimism. “I have good news. Bookings are up 25 percent for Crested Butte Lodging in comparison to where we were last year,” MacDonald said. “But what does that really mean, since last year was so slow? So we took a look at two years ago, and we are pacing 8 percent behind. To me that’s a stronger indication that we’re returning to signs of stability.”
 MacDonald said the increase was largely due to group business sales, in particular youth ski clubs and church groups. “Those might not be the most desirable visitors because their level of income isn’t much, but they do satisfy a niche. A youth group isn’t going to rent the West Wall, but they certainly fill some properties out there that need to be filled and keep our homeowners happy,” he said.
MacDonald said Crested Butte Lodging’s marketing strategy included a focus on attracting return guests and marketing to people actively shopping for a skiing vacation. Crested Butte Lodging also works with tour operators like Ski.com, Orbitz and Expedia. “Those channels are really going to drive our future markets,” he said.
Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority director Scott Truex spoke about air travel and bus service. “I’m glad we’re doing this today, and not two weeks ago,” Truex said. “Two weeks ago our bookings were down 12 percent. Today they’re down 5.9 percent, so we’re gaining ground,” he said of the airline reservations.
The RTA and CBMR put up $1.4 million in financial guarantees this winter to entice airlines to fly jets to Gunnison from different cities. He said, “Generally airlines like to run 80 percent or more full.” Truex said the passenger load on flights averaged 52 percent last winter, which led to the RTA and CBMR paying the full amount of guarantees. Truex suspects one of the reasons they paid the full guarantee was there were too many flights on big jets, leaving too much capacity and not enough people. This winter, he said, they had to eliminate a few flights from last year’s schedule, but mainly focused on getting the airlines to fly smaller jets.
Currently, Truex said the guaranteed flights are up in passenger loads, which is good news for the RTA. He said it’s the non-guaranteed daily propeller plane flight from Denver that is down in ticket sales right now.
On the ground transportation side, Truex said the RTA is running 9 daily round-trips on the Gunnison to Crested Butte bus this winter, down from 11 trips last winter.
He said the reduction is due to the RTA’s finances, not the number of riders on the busses. “Those busses have been hugely successfully, but our finances are down 14 percent so we had to cut service,” Truex said.
The RTA gets most of its funds through sales tax, but Truex said “we’re looking at creative ways to come up with funding this year.”
But some good news for ground transportation—the bus service from Gunnison to Denver will likely become daily this winter Truex said. It currently only runs five days a week.
The RTA has full airline and bus schedules on its website at gunnisonvalleyrta.org.
CBMR’s vice president of sales and marketing, Daren Cole, spoke about recent upgrades to the ski area, and the company’s director of sales, Jon Walters, discussed their current reservations.
Walters said, “Last year we had a particularly strong year in meeting and conference (sales). We’re down there about 50 percent (this year).”
Walters said the whole meeting and conference industry has tightened up this year, following the scandals on Wall Street. Walters said he talked to a member of a Fortune 500 company that was having a freeze on meetings. “If they have a meeting, they’re having it right there in the building, or the hotel down the street,” Walters said.
But Walters said CBMR was seeing an increase of 30 percent in its regular leisure bookings— families, couples, and other people looking for a ski vacation.
Vacation travelers often get nicer condos or hotel rooms than the meeting and conference groups, and Cole said thanks to the strong leisure bookings CBMR’s year to date lodging revenue was up 5 percent, and total revenue was up 2 percent.
Cole then discussed some of the capital improvements that CBMR is hoping to entice people with, as well as some possible changes to ticket sales that could provide guests a better experience.
For instance, Cole said CBMR is looking to replace paper tickets with reusable cards, either this year or sometime in the future. Cole said visitors would be able to use the same card as a lift ticket or to get food at one of the dining facilities. Customers would also be able to put a cash balance on the card, similar to a debit card, or link it with their credit card, to purchase goods or lodging without having to carry around their checkbook or regular credit cards.
Cole said the Adventure Park would be running throughout the winter, including the skating rink, climbing wall and bungee trampoline. There will also be a larger tubing hill with several different courses.
The Ice Bar was completely remodeled, and has a new name— Uley’s Cabin, in honor of a bootlegger who used to live in Tincup.
Cole said CBMR is also interested in starting a snow and ice driving school sponsored by Subaru, but that might not be ready in time for this winter.
CBMR will also take the Discover Card this year. Cole says CBMR had never taken the Discover Card before, but they formed a unique partnership with the credit card company. Discover will create an advertising campaign for its members, offering a 30 percent discount on CBMR lodging and lift tickets by using the card. Cole said Discover has offered similar programs with other resorts and it has a proven track record for good financial returns.
Lastly, CBMR is looking to YOU to help keep business rolling. Walters introduced the Group Business Referral Rewards program—if you can get a group of 10 or more people to book a vacation, conference or meeting at CBMR, the resort will share 4 percent of the profits it receives with you. Email jwalters@cbmr.com to ask how to sign up.
The ski area opens the day before Thanksgiving this year on November 25.