Steamboat Resort Travel OK Given the Economic Conditions

On the market: Report: Resort travel better than expected
By Tom Ross (Contact)
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Tom Ross' On the Market column appears Sundays in the Real Estate section of the Steamboat Pilot & Today. Contact him at 871-4205 or e-mail tross@steamboatpilot.com.

Report: Resort travel better than expected An organization that studies travel trends at resorts throughout the western states reports that the hit absorbed by ski resorts wasn’t as bad as anticipated. According to the most recent data released in the Mountain Travel Monitor produced by the Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP), the occupancy rate for destination resorts was down 8.5 percent from last year, while the average daily rate for accommodations declined 4.8 percent.

The data was derived from a sample of 216 property management companies in 15 mountain destination communities across Colorado, Utah, California and British Columbia. Figures for occupancy in mountain resorts is still down 18.1 percent overall for the entire season, according to MTRiP. And the advanced reservation outlook for the remainder of the season remains weak with bookings for January through April running 20 percent behind last year’s pace.

A decline in revenue primarily was because of significant last-minute discounts offered by lodging properties. With December economic indicators very weak — including the Consumer Confidence Index at 38.0, which ties the record low set last October — and unemployment rates as high as 7.2 percent, projections for good holiday business were low.

Overall, December reservations were down 7.1 percent compared to last December.

Frontier Airlines brings in 1,416 in December
Passenger numbers on Frontier Airlines flights between Denver and Yampa Valley Regional Airport during the second half of December were comparable to the numbers for the longstanding Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis.

Figures maintained by Routt County show that Frontier flew 1,416 passengers into the valley last month. Frontier began its service on 70-passenger turboprops Dec. 17, offering three daily flights most days of the week but cutting operations to two flights in the middle of the week. Northwest, which operates a daily flight from the Twin Cities of Minnesota on a 124-passenger Airbus, delivered 1,459 travelers in December.


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