VAIL, Colo.-
Less than a third of this resort town’s business comes between May and October, and some business owners and development officials say that’s an imbalance that should be addressed.
“If an individual business worked four or five months out of the year to make 12 months of money, that’s not necessarily an efficient business model,” said Michael Robinson, president of the Vail Valley Partnership.
About 71 percent of Vail’s business comes in the November-April period, the Vail Daily reported Wednesday.
By comparison, Aspen gets 59 percent of its state-taxable sales in that period, the newspaper said, citing a study done for the town of Vail. Telluride gets 54 percent of its sales in that period.
Vail does draw summer visitors for hiking, rafting and biking, music festivals and the Teva Mountain Games. But Kaye Ferry, executive director of the Vail Chamber and Business Association, said the town’s summer identity isn’t strong enough.
“I don’t think that we have ever really been defined well enough by one type of activity that we have set ourselves off from the rest of the pack,” she said. “We do a lot of things in the summer, but we are not known for doing anything in the summer better than everyone else.”
Not everyone sees the lopsided numbers as a problem, but only evidence of how strong Vail’s ski business is.
“My guess is that it doesn’t show that Vail’s summer is weak,” said Ralf Garrison, a resort analyst with The Advisory Group. “It actually shows that Vail’s winter is particularly strong.”
Steve Rosenthal said July is the second-best month at his business, Colorado Footwear. He said he sees more customers in the summer but sells less-expensive products.
Rosenthal said he sees potential for Vail to step up its business in September and other slow months.
“The more special events the better,” he said. “We definitely have to be a 12-month resort.”
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Information from: Vail Daily,
