THE STATE OF
SUMMER OPS
rience (i.e., your offerings add to other regional attractions to create a compel- ling reason to visit), and a challenge, as you have a lot of competition.” Target audience. Unsurprisingly, families overwhelmingly ranked as the top target audience for summer business. Couples and businesses/groups followed in second and third, respectively. Sever- al respondents optimistically wrote in “anyone” as their target audience. In respect to “anyone,” yes, the sum- mer audience is far bigger and more diverse than the winter audience, but that makes it even more important to choose your targets wisely and not waste resourc- es on installing the wrong activities and programming, or marketing to people who aren’t interested in what you offer. For example, one Western Canada ski area said its distance from a major metropolitan area hindered the success of its ropes course, leading to the realiza- tion that “it was not the right offering for a limited summer business model.” MEASURES OF SUCCESS On average, summer business accounts for a fraction of year-round revenue. Thir- ty-nine percent of respondents said that summer operations made up less than 10% of year-round revenue, while about
35% said it made up between 10-20% of year-round revenue. According to NSAA’s 2022-2023 Economic Analysis of U.S. Ski Areas (the most recent available at press time), summer revenue made up an average of 11.9% of total revenue for those that offered it. This is a small decrease from 2021-22, which reported 12.3% of total revenue. SAM ’s survey asked respondents to choose a range of percentage of total revenue rather than a specific number, in part to make it easier for respondents to answer. While the Economic Analysis number appears to track lower than that of our survey results, they both tell a sim- ilar story about summer’s contribution to overall revenue. Profitability. While not a major contributor on average to the overall bottom line at most ski areas, summer operations are profitable, for the most part. “Each of our summer offerings turn a profit under normal circumstances. We have seen great growth in our sum- mer businesses this past summer,” said a respondent from a Northeast ski area. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said that less than 10% of their summer offerings operate at a loss and 53% stat- ed that more than 40% of their summer offerings were profitable.
Percentage of Total Year-Round Revenue
2%
11%
13%
39%
35%
30-40% More than 40%
Less than 10% 10-20% 20-30%
However, the profitability calcula- tion has many variables, according to respondents. One from a Southwest ski area said, “Summer operations do make a profit, if only factoring in the labor costs associated with the summer activities. If we include year-round staff and annual maintenance, insurance, and property taxes, we’d lose money every summer.”
Values Statements
Respondents evaluated these statements as they related to their summer business.
Strongly Disagree
Not Applicable
Strongly Agree
Statement
Agree
Disagree
Summer Business Improves Hiring and Staff Retention Summer Business Attracts New User Groups Summer Business Supports Our Local Community Profitability is the First Measure of Success in Summer Business Summer Offerings are Important to our Winter Guests
45%
5%
0%
0%
50%
52%
5%
2%
1%
40%
44%
3%
2%
4%
47%
45%
32%
7%
1%
15%
55%
39%
0%
1%
5%
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