Making millions with Epic Pass: Can Vail Resorts continue to grow in Europe after Crans-Montana?

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Vail Resorts are also becoming increasingly popular in Switzerland. Following Andermatt-Sedrun UR/GR, the American ski resort operator announced the acquisition of Crans-Montana VS last November. So why is Vail Resorts expanding so much?

An important source of income for ski area operators is the Epic Pass. This ski pass gives you access to 41 ski areas worldwide. There will be 42 ski areas in Crans-Montana next season. Cost: $969. The ski resort chain had about 2.3 million Epic Pass customers last season.

In 2023 alone, global ski pass sales brought $853 million into Americans’ coffers, “NZZ” writes. Sales were $2.9 billion. Vail Resorts makes about half of that from ski pass sales.

Sales only in early season

The catch: The Epic Pass, which has been on the market since 2008, must be purchased before the season. So Vail Resorts is making money even before next season’s first swell begins. The American operator also benefits from the fact that only a few days’ worth of tickets are sold due to bad weather conditions.

Unlike Swiss ski resorts, Vail Resorts has the advantage because there is no risk of clustering. In this country, ski areas suffer great losses when there is no snow or when the cable cars are closed due to too much wind.

If there was no debt

Vail Resorts’ profits are also impressive: $300 million in 2023. However, it is said that the operator has a heavy debt of 2.8 billion dollars. Therefore, the question arises as to whether Vail Resorts can continue to grow in the near future.

For the Epic Pass to be truly useful for the Swiss, it probably needs to extend to other ski areas in Europe. Epic Pass is especially interesting in the US right now. Vail Resorts operates most of the ski areas here. But the chain of ski resorts has already spread in Canada and Australia – in Europe so far only in Switzerland. (kae)

Source :Blick