The Resort saw 82 days of snow, not all at once, and both Resort management and business operators alike found creative ways to deal with it.
“I think everyone in the Resort felt the ‘no-snow’ impact,” Nicholson said. “That being said, the Community as a whole really rallied together to make the best of the situation.”
The Resort itself “really stepped up,” she said, and the business community appreciated efforts to retain Season Pass holders with ideas such as the 100-day assurance (which entitles season’s pass holders to discounts next year).
March and early April provided excellent spring skiing conditions, which translated to visitors already booking their trips for next year.
With the break in service, Tourism Mount Washington kept stakeholders up to date with regular e-mail newsletters of events and activities so they could pass the information on to their customers. This is the second year for the newsletters, Nicholson said, which are released more frequently during the winter season.
The Association held its Annual General Meeting on June 7. The Board set some strategic goals prior to the meeting: to enhance the visitor experience and destination image; and to increase mid-week and off-season occupancy.
These meld with the Association’s overall mission “to coordinate the common interest and collective resources of the resource community and to enhance the overall experience of visitors and maximize benefit to members,” Nicholson said.
“We’re really committed to working with the resort community as a whole to ensure we coordinate common interests… so we can also collectively work together to ensure our guests have a positive experience,” she said.
One of the tangible ways Tourism Mount Washington works to achieve its goals is by obtaining Tourism BC approved accommodation status for their managed rental properties. “We get annual inspections, and the inspection at the end of the season this year gave another positive result, with accommodation being accepted for approved status.”
While the snow situation made for an interesting season, Nicholson said news that the Resort is for sale has been met with a sense of anticipation in the on-hill community.
“There’s a lot of acknowledgement of significant investment that has been made to date by current ownership; acknowledgement and appreciation,” she said. “There’s a quiet optimism and excitement about the potential of new vision and taking the existing resort to the next level. This is a strategic sale, not a distress sale,” Nicholson added. “This could be very exciting not just for the resort community but the surrounding community as well. There really is a sense of excitement on the mountain about new ownership and bringing in some new capital investment.”