Ski ticket sales for Australia’s most popular snow fields down 22pc

The worst ski season in decades and soft economic conditions have led to a steep drop in ticket sales for top resorts Perisher, Falls Creek and ­Hotham.

Ski ticket sales for Perisher, Falls Creek and Hotham have taken a big hit due to poor weather and a tougher economic climate.

The worst ski season in decades and soft economic conditions that forced many skiers to rethink their plans to swish down the slopes of some of Australia’s best ski fields, have seen a steep 22 per cent drop in ticket sales for Perisher, Falls Creek and ­Hotham.

Vail Resorts, the US operator of Australia’s biggest ski fields, revealed that sales of its Epic Australia pass is down 22 per cent for the year to June and has become a major drag on its overall business that operates 42 mountain resorts and ski fields across the US, Canada and Australia.

The Epic pass is one of the company’s most popular ski visit ticket packages, giving unlimited access to Perisher, Falls Creek and Hotham as well as Vail’s North American ski fields such as Whistler Blackcomb in Canada and Vail Mountain in Colorado ands its ski fields in Europe.

Adult tickets are priced at close to $1300, while children’s sell at $749 each.

Due to cost-of-living pressures, the family ski holiday is becoming a luxury expense and is getting the chop. Coupled with weather conditions, ticket sales, especially for Vail in Australia, have felt the pinch.

“Epic Australia Pass sales ending on June 12, 2024, are down approximately 22 per cent in units, which we believe is primarily a result of the historically poor conditions during the 2023 ski season in Australia,’’ Vail chief executive Kirsten Lynch told US analysts at its latest results briefing

“Australia has had highly variable seasons. Two years ago a record high season of amazing conditions and then unfortunately the next year, worst season in decades. So a tale of two extremes over the course of the two years.

“I do think that is impacting decision making about an Epic pass in Australia, as well as other unique dynamics happening in Australia related to the economy,” she said, adding, however, that the Epic Australia pass had grown 43 per cent in units over the past three years.

Tough economic times have forced households to restrict spending on luxury holidays, including hitting the slopes.

The remoteness of Australia was also a disadvantage for local skiers compared to skiers in the US who had a lot more “optionality” when it came to chasing better weather for skiing across North America, which was the big advantage of the Epic pass as it gave access to Vail’s other ski fields.

“A lot of our Epic Australia pass holders are visiting our local resorts, and what you see in North America is a lot of optionality, and one of the benefits of the pass is if you live in San Francisco and conditions are challenging in Tahoe (California) you have a lot of good options to go to Park City (Rockies), or go to Whistler (Canada) or go to Colorado. “That level of optionality in Australia when there is a poor winter is just more limited,” Ms Lynch said.

In 2022, Australia’s leading ski resorts Perisher, Hotham and Falls Creek posted record demand from local skiers and snowboarders after two years of cancelled ski seasons due to the Covid-19 pandemic and travel restrictions that saw pent-up demand suddenly unleashed as people returned to the slopes.

While the interest in swishing down the slopes might still be strong, tightening household budgets and the rising cost of living is forcing snow fans to direct their incomes to paying higher mortgages or insurance and groceries rather than ski lift passes. The Commonwealth Bank’s Household Spending Insights index recently revealed a sharp decline in spending on recreation, holidays and travel as consumers reined in spending on this discretionary category.