Tahoe brings down Vail Resorts’ earnings projections
By Jason Blevins, Denver Post
Snowy Colorado buoyed Vail Resorts in first three months of the 2013-14 ski season as the historic drought in California shriveled visitation and revenue at the company’s three Lake Tahoe-area resorts.
Skier visits at Vail Resorts’ Colorado ski areas — Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone — climbed 11.9 percent in the three months ending Jan. 31, compared with the same period last season. But a 73 percent decline in snowfall around Lake Tahoe triggered a 27.7 percent decline in visitation at the company’s California resorts — Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood.
The rough winter in California forced the company to decrease its projected earnings for fiscal 2014 by about 10 percent.