Advance bookings for Vail Resorts are down sharply, and the resort operator plans to continue pushing ski-vacation discounts to boost business, company executives said Tuesday.
The resort operator posted a wider loss in the first quarter of fiscal 2009 compared with the prior year, when it benefited from a hefty one-time gain.
But the company is being pummeled by the economic downturn, with advance reservations down 23 percent, executives told investors Tuesday. By comparison, bookings fell by about 5 percent in the ski season after Sept. 11, 2001.
“This year will assuredly offer us a challenge,” chief executive Rob Katz said Tuesday.
The company’s losses totaled $34.5 million, or 93 cents per share, compared with losses of $24.6 million, or 63 cents per share, a year ago. Vail Resorts noted that a gain of $11.9 million in a contract-dispute credit was included in the prior year’s results.
Quarterly revenue jumped 56 percent to $152.8 million, from $97.9 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2008. Vail Resorts’ revenue was boosted by the timing of real-estate transactions during the quarter.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast a loss of 83 cents per share on revenue of $138.9 million.
The Broomfield-based company operates four resorts in Colorado — Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Keystone and Vail — as well as Heavenly Mountain in California.
Katz and chief financial officer Jeff Jones said they expect to continue pushing discounted vacation packages and season- pass sales. But they said there were no plans to lower general lift-ticket prices.
