COVID-19’s ‘devastating impact’ on the Australian ski industry

With resorts in Victoria closed and slopes in NSW operating with restricted numbers - including lifts at 50% capacity - Australia’s winter ski season has been described as “very different”, Colin Hackworth, Chief Executive of the Australian Ski Areas Association.

With capacity constraints to manage social distancing, hygiene and sanitisation protocols, Hackworth has told the Sydney Morning Herald that NSW resorts had managed to “eke out a season”, noting “COVID-19 has had a profoundly devastating impact on the Australian ski industry this year.”

Advising that visitors had been understanding about efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Hackworth advised “other than the hygiene, sanitisation and social distancing protocols in place, the other major change this year has been the requirement for customers to book ahead and online in order to secure a spot to go skiing/snowboarding.”

Potential visitors were left frustrated in June after encountering long delays and technical difficulties on a website set up to sell lift passes at Thredbo.

Hackworth said relatively poor natural snowfalls had also restricted cross country and backcountry skiing this season.

Peter Brulisauer, Senior Vice President of Vail Resorts Australia, said the company, which operates Perisher in NSW, and Falls Creek and Mt Hotham in Victoria, was “grateful” to have been able to open resorts “especially given the tough start to the year with bushfires”.

Advising that the Australian ski industry generated about 23,000 jobs and $2.4 billion in annual economic impact, Hackworth added “much of that has been completely lost in 2020.

“Precise numbers are not known at this stage but the impact will be shockingly cruel.”

Prior to its closure as part of Victoria’s second stage lockdown, Mt Buller was open – in limited fashion - for 43 days while Falls Creek and Mt Hotham were open for just five days.

Explaining Vail Resorts’ closure of its Victorian locations in a letter to staff on 14th July, Brulisauer advised “I have heard concerns that we made this decision purely for financial reasons.

“There is no doubt that the Stay at Home orders in Melbourne would have drastically reduced guests to the resorts but, it still might have been possible to remain profitable at a smaller scale.”

However, Brulisauer emphasised that was not how the decision was made, adding “when we voluntarily closed our resorts in North America (in March) it came at a massive financial cost to the Company, one which we accepted because we believed it was the right decision. The same is true here.”

Thredbo, which in a good year can make up to $25 million pre-tax profit, has operated at 50% capacity from 22nd June with the hope that it would break even.

Thredbo General Manager Stuart Diver told the Snows Best website on 31st May, “I’m not going to give any financials out, but yeah, we’re opening with the hope of breaking even obviously.

“We understand resorts and the economic benefit that us opening brings to the entire snow and mountain region. And so therefore, we need to open, not just for us, but for everyone else.

“That’s always been my plan the whole way through, but yeah, some of our planning was based around possibly opening in August, then possibly opening in September, depending how it all looked.

“And even if we were to open in only September, I was still going to open the resort, and we definitely wouldn’t have been making any money then.

“Obviously it’s about us, we’ve got to look after our staff but the Thredbo community’s hugely important to us as well as Jindabyne and everywhere else.”

Summing up the season, Hackworth concluded “the industry’s pretty resilient and quite happy to tolerate quite large variances in business because of weather conditions but not a COVID induced variation like we’ve had this year.

“The NSW resorts have done the best because they were able to open in late June and were able to remain open.

“They’ve done well, they’ve had to deal with 50% capacity constraints but other that they’ve been able to march along quite well.”

Despite the challenges, there is sustained demand for skiing and snowboarding in NSW, with lift ticket prices of $152 at Perisher and $159 at Thredbo reflecting that.

Image: Thredbo had invested in a new gondola lift for the 2020 season (top); Perisher (middle) and early season snow at Falls Creek (below, courtesy of Matt Hull).