Years of promoting summer activities like zip lines, trampolines, mountain biking, music and film festivals and bike and trail races appears to be bearing fruit at Western mountain resorts, according to the latest lodging survey by Denver-based Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP).
Average actual occupancy for the month of July was up 4.7 percent at the 16 western mountain destinations tracked by MTRiP. Moreover, data and analysis through July 31 show on-the-books occupancy for August up 7.1 percent compared to a year earlier. If that holds, it would mark the fourth consecutive year-over-year increase in monthly occupancy.
“What we discovered this month is that some mountain destinations have fully recovered beyond pre-recession levels,” said MTRiP Director Ralf Garrison. “Unusually hot temperatures may well have helped lure visitors to the cooler mountain settings, but it appears that they also appreciate the lively summer vibe in mountain resorts and that suggests to us that mountain summers may have come of age independently of their winter foundation.”
The observation comes as resorts invest millions of dollars into new summer amenities, a trend likely to accelerate thanks to passage last fall of the Ski Area Recreational Opportunities Enhancement Act, which expands the types of outdoor recreation infrastructure resort operators can develop on land leased from the U.S. Forest Service.
“After several seasons of increasing summer strength, and the key summer months of June, July and August all but ‘in the bag,’ we are confident these increases have become a trend,” said Garrison.
Given the vagaries of weather, the housing market and consumer sentiment, the outlook for the upcoming winter is less sanguine.
“Even though pending home sales have climbed to their highest level since September 2010, in the past three years we’ve seen similar trends only to be disappointed by a new slump in the autumn,” observed MTRiP Operations Director Tom Foley. “So destinations need to be wary.”
