ASPEN — The Aspen Skiing Co. doesn’t expect to recover the skier visits lost during the 2008-09 season this coming winter, according to its top two executives.
President and chief executive Mike Kaplan and senior vice president David Perry said the economy makes it unlikely the company will improve its numbers from last season. The company racked up 1.36 million skier visits last season, a decrease of 7.6 percent from the season before.
“Frankly, if we had flat business levels this coming winter to last winter, it would be OK,” Perry said. “We wouldn’t be surprised by that. It would be a reasonable outcome.”
Kaplan said forecasts are nearly impossible. Destination resorts such as Aspen and Snowmass have lost one of their prime business indicators — advance reservations.
The recreation travel business has been forced to rely largely on last-minute bookings.
Perry expects advance reservations September through November will be stronger than last year’s but not as strong as two years ago.
