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The seven ski areas owned by Vail Resorts Inc. attracted 5.5 percent more skier visits this winter than in 2011-12, the company said Monday.
Those extra visitors were not tight-fisted either. Revenue from the lift tickets they bought eclipsed the previous season's total by 10.2 percent, said Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz, while dining revenue rose even more — 13.1 percent.
Ski school revenues also climbed 11.6 percent over 2011-12 levels, he added, while income from rentals and retail stores rose 8.9 percent.
"We are very pleased with the strong results this season," Katz said of the data through April 14. "The growth in skier visitation continued to accelerate through spring break and the Easter holiday."
As a publicly traded company, Vail Resorts releases regular reports about the financial performances of their ski areas. And since it is one of the ski industry's largest companies, Vail's numbers often are seen as a solid barometer of the overall industry's health.
That includes the 14 privately owned resorts in Utah. They report cumulative season skier-visit totals, but do not provide information about lift ticket sales for individual resorts or other revenue sources.
Vail's report includes its four Colorado resorts — Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone — plus Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood near Lake Tahoe.
It does not include two other resorts acquired in the last year by Vail Resorts — Afton Alps in Minnesota and Mt. Brighton in Michigan.
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