Operators reflect on summer business levels, staffing challenges, and staying relevant in the post-Covid era. WEATHERING THE SUMMER OF ‘23
BY APRIL DARROW
By Linda Goodspeed
The Covid boom may be over, but that does not mean a return to pre-pandemic business levels for ae- rial park operators. Thanks to Covid, the bar is now higher, even in a year when weather challenges dampened demand for many operators. Kurt Damron, CEO of Highlands Aerial Park, N.C., said since the Covid 2021 season, when revenue shot up 80 per - cent over pre-Covid levels, business has been slowly tailing off, but “we’re still way up over pre-Covid years.” “Excitement is not waning, but consum - er spending is changing,” he added. “People are still taking trips, but not spending as much.” FLAT LINE “Our revenue is about dead flat with last summer,” said Damron. “We raised prices, which really helped make up the difference in what would have been a much lower year. Visitation was defi - nitely down (11 percent year-over-year, while revenue slipped just 1 percent).” Andrew Bogue at Challenge Quest outside Tulsa, Okla., also said demand was flat this summer, as was revenue, despite raising prices. Flat is good. “Since the [Covid] ’21 sea - son, which was our best, the last two summers have been steady—not crazy like ’21, but steady,” he said. “I’m really happy with the numbers. We’re still do- ing well above pre-pandemic levels. Our business was down across the board. Then Covid and ’21 happened. We’ve been steady, flat line since.”
Despite raising prices, demand and revenue were also flat at Colorado’s Tel - luride Canopy Adventure, which has a five-line zip tour with two aerial bridges and two rappels. At AVA Rafting & Zipline, an outfitter based in Idaho Springs, Colo., which offers a variety of activities including zip lining, both demand and revenue were also down. WHEN IT RAINS... In what Olivia Cellini, co-owner of Mountain Ridge Adventures in Sche - nectady, N.Y., calls her “summer of locusts,” what could go wrong, did. Start with the rain—which led to one of the wettest-ever summers in the North- east—throw in smoke from the Cana- dian wildfires (“we lost an entire group to the wildfires,” Cellini said), add in a new marketing firm (“horrible, we had to fire them”), and for good measure a new bookkeeping system (“a disaster, we spent so much time on it only to go back to the old one”), and it is a wonder the park was down just 10 percent.
“Corporate groups are up; summer camps and schools are doing well,” said Cellini. “In some cases, we have entire school districts coming out. Those [rela- tionships] tend to be long lasting. [The schools] filled in time slots that weren’t being filled by the general public. “We have a positive outlook for next year,” she added. “We’ve built a good business model. We’re definitely keep - ing up our outreach program. We’re reaching out to groups and others.” Groups also helped lift Butter and Egg Adventures, a 40-acre, 19-zip-line out - door adventure retreat in Troy, Ala., to its “best summer,” said owner/operator Ron Pierce. He credited better market- ing for the upsurge, along with a wide variety of activities that includes out- door laser tag, axe throwing, an escape room, canoeing, and fishing. Team-building. “We had more groups than we’ve had in a long time,” Pierce said. “Our team-building numbers also went up. We’re one of the few places in the Southeast that does true team-building. “We did a lot of corporate and school retreats, a lot of church retreats. We have only 52 beds on the property, so our niche is small groups. Word gets back that we cater to small groups, a lot of personal touch. We get a lot of repeat business.” Also new this year was a contract with nearby Troy University to host up to 30 students at a time. >> continued
“When it rains, it pours,” she said.
Morale killer. Cellini did not have to lay off staff because of all the rain and cancellations, but shifts and hours had to be cut, and morale plunged. “Ninety percent of our staff have second jobs to fill in those fewer shifts,” she said. GROUP SALES UP On the positive side, Cellini said group sales were up, which is why “we were only 10 percent down.”
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