Vail Resorts (MTN) Reports Ski Season Metrics, Skier Visits Down

Vail Resorts (NYSE:MTN), Inc. MTN reported certain ski season metrics for the period from the beginning of the ski season through Jan 2, 2022.

Ski Season Metrics

Season-to-date (through Jan 2, 2022) total skier visits fell 1.7% compared with the prior-year season-to-date period (Jan 3, 2021). The metric declined 18.3% compared with the fiscal year 2020 season-to-date period.

Lift ticket revenues (including an allocated portion of season pass revenues for each applicable period) increased 25.9% year over year but declined 4.6% compared with the fiscal year 2020 season-to-date period. Ski school revenues surged 59.1% year over year while dining revenues jumped 64.7% compared with the prior-year period. However, ski school revenues and dining revenue declined 25.2% and 45.1% compared with the fiscal year 2020 season-to-date period.

Retail/rental revenues for North American resort and ski area store locations increased 36.3% compared with the prior-year season-to-date period. However, the metric slumped 19.5% compared with the comparable season-to-date period in the fiscal year 2020.

Kirsten Lynch, CEO of Vail Resorts, said, “As expected, season-to-date 2021/2022 North American ski season results are significantly outperforming results from the prior year, due to the greater impact of COVID-19 and related limitations and restrictions on results from the 2020/2021 season. Relative to the 2019/2020 North American ski season, the 2021/2022 North American ski season got off to a slow start with challenging early season conditions that were worse than our expectations, resulting in delayed openings and limited open terrain that persisted into the first week of the holidays ending December 26, 2021.”

The company stated that the Omicron variant has been negatively impacting the company’s performance. However, the company’s season pass business, the relative strength of destination visitation over the holidays and lately improved conditions bode well.

In the past year, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 9.6%, compared with the industry’s rally of 4.2%.

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