Ups and Downs (but mostly up) of leisure and business travel

Vermont Business Magazine, Mar 01, 2004 by Brush, Cassandra Hemenway

While other states have seen tourism dips in the, double digits since 9/11, Vermont is getting back on track, with a 10 percent jump in rooms and meals taxes over the latest projections, and a 7 percent increase over actual revenues from this time last year, said Vermont Department of Travel and Tourism Commissioner Bruce Hyde.

The ski area saw a dip in lift ticket sales, averaging about 15 percent below last-year's sales, said David Dillon, president of the Vermont Ski Areas Association. A late start to the season, wet weather late 2003, then frigid January temperatures that set record lows can account for it, but Dillon was quick to point out that the drop in revenue to ski areas paralleled the increase in the rooms and meals tax.

"Even though they didn't ski, they were up here for their winter vacations," Dillon said. "We see that reflected in lower lift ticket sales, but not necessarily in rooms and meals and other expenditures."

However, Dillon added, "We don't think that'll hold true for January. The feeling is rooms and meals will be softer as a result in the decrease in lift ticket sales."

Numbers for2004 haven't been figured yet, Dillon said.

Okemo Mountain Resort saw a 10 percent dip in sales compared to the previous year, said Pam Cruickshank, Okemo's Director of Public Relations. Perhaps indicative of the industry as a whole, Okemo experienced both highs and lows this season.

Thanksgiving weekend, sales were off projections by 36 percent, she said, but mild weather and fresh snow brought the Christmas season up 10 percent over 2002. Then came January, and with Martin Luther King Weekend 2004 came a 3.1 percent dip, but Cruickshank reports February's "Presidents' Week" has netted the highest sales in Okemo's history, up 13.5 percent. Still, the company took a hit overall.

"There is still time to make up the deficit before the end of the season," Cruickshank said. "The month of March is looking extremely strong."

Because the ski industry as a whole saw a notable decrease in visitors this season, the House Appropriations Committee initiated a bill approving $300,000 in state funds to go to the Ski Association. The money is slated for marketing the second half of winter, which, at least for one mountain, doesn't end until June. The bill, known as the Budget Adjustment Act, has been stuck in conference committee, said Dillon, and - as of press time - "they have not met."

"It's not too late now, but if it goes any longer it will be," Dillon said. "The process works at its own pace."

Commissioner Hyde said Vermont's tourism industry - like others across the nation, and globe - took a hit after the terrorist acts of 9/11. But unlike many other states, Vermont is already on the rebound.

"I attribute a lot of that to our increased efforts to advertise Vermont," Hyde said. The Department of Travel and Tourism's advertising budget increased from $750,000 in 2003, to $3 million in 2004, two thirds of which Hyde said come from state funds. Hyde said the money, in part, pays to send Vermont representatives to trade shows nationally.

One major show is the South Florida fair in West Palm Beach, FL, in which Vermont Ski Areas Association, Cabot Cheese, Vermont Department of Travel and Tourism, and the Okemo Valley Chamber of Commerce partnered to present Vermont's crystal clean image to the 700,000 visitors there.

Until recently, Ed Eagan, Executive Director of the Okemo Valley Chamber, said, the state has not participated in trade shows. This year, however, "We're going to about 20 different travel trade shows."

Why bother with a trade show?

"It gets the word out much better," Eagan said. "And to a captive audience. People looking for travel opportunities go to trade shows."

Eagan said aggressively marketing to metropolitan areas a sixhour or more drive from Vermont may be the only way to fill Vermont's perpetually low occupancy rates. Hyde estimates Vermont has an average of 40 percent occupancy, while other tourist areas in the country average 60 percent.

"We've got a real infrastructure to fill,Hyde said. "We're positioning ourselves in the 80 to 90 million people market in an eight- or 10-hour drive away."

And what about Vermont's core market in southern New England? That's old news, said Eagan. He clarified that Vermont's tourist industry still relies on visitors from Boston, New York, southern Connecticut, and New Jersey, but those travelers have only a four-hour drive, and since 9/11 have taken to staying only one or two nights at a time. The lodging industry needs week-long visitors to close the occupancy gap.

That's why Eagan said he's doing "fairly extensive" marketing to areas that are a six hour or longer drive away.

"If you do all your marketing in an, area which is only going to get you twonight stays, then you really don't have any reason to suspect you're going to have anything more than a 28 percent occupancy," he said.

Indeed, that's why Eagan chose to visit Florida this January.

One of the top 50 fairs for attendance, and a theme called "Return Home to New England," Eagan said, "It didn't take rocket science to figure out we ought to be there."