The Ski Industry is Feeling Pretty Good

2008 was an excellent ski year, for both skiers and the ski industry.

There was great snow, and that resulted in great business, and the highest number of skier visits on record.

For those watching the economy, one might predict that 2009 would seemed doomed.

After all, skiing would seem to be one of those things people would do without.

But, the New Hampshire ski industry is one of the few bright spots in dark economic times.

While they don’t expect 2009 to be as strong as last year, ski areas are approaching this year as if it were any other.

Ben Wilcox says he’s actually feeling very optimistic.

He’s the general manager of Cranmore Mountain Resort in North Conway.

He says the down economy affects his customers, but in some ways it benefits New Hampshire resorts.

“People will maybe not take the big trip and spend the big bucks to go out West or travel afar, but they will say we’re going to do the extended trip in the East.”

The downturn has helped this season in other ways.

“Being within two and a half, three hours from Boston, umm, you know, gas prices now coming down has been a huge relief.”

Falling fuel prices have helped in other ways.

It doesn’t cost as much to heat lodges, groom trails or even make snow.

Those are ski resorts’ primary expenses.

Wildcat Ski Area general manager Tom Caughey:

“When the fuel price was up last year we made investments in additional energy efficient snow-making equipment so that we would be in a better position to make snow regardless of the energy market.”

The resorts have been looking for more ways to cut expenses, but they haven’t cut jobs.

Neither have local businesses that serve skiers.

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“Service work is up, so we’ve had to add help to make sure that all the binding work and the ski tuning is up to date. So we’ve added. So we have more employees now then we had this time last year.”

That’s Stan Millen, co-owner and manager of Stan and Dan’s Sports.

He says he ordered this season’s inventory in February.

He hasn’t been able to make corrections to deal with the economy, but he doesn’t feel he needs to.

“We’re not recession-proof, for sure, but I am more concerned about a poor snow year.”

It’s the same view everywhere.

Again, Wildcat G¬–M Tom Caughey:

“If we have a poor snow year on top of the current economic situation, that would be very difficult.”

But like the rest of the industry, Caughey is optimistic.

“I think in a year like this, people are going to look at how they are spending their time and their money. And if there is an opportunity for some people to have a quality time because there’s good winter conditions they’re going to come to New Hampshire and do pretty well.”

The snow, it seems, trumps the markets.

For N-H-P-R News, this is Erik Eisele, in Bartlett.