Non-skiing winter attractions at ski resorts

lotsoskiing

Random topic:

I am curious how the various non-skiing attractions fare as far as money-making goes. Tubing, mountain coasters, etc seem to be proliferating and I am curious if they pay off. Jay's operation and Smuggs' village are entities to themselves, as they are so large; just curious about the smaller add-ons

rickbolger

Tubing aside....Attitash added a mountain coaster a few years back, it was odd to have that thing go over your head if you happened to be under it. Now it doesn't seem to run during the winter months any more. Likewise at Wildcat I remember people flying over me on some kind of zipline, but I don't think it operates during the winter any longer. If they do operate during the winter, they aren't very popular.

Okemo had a coaster, but again, does it still operate in winter? They also have some kind of water park, not sure how that does.

Mount Snow and Killington both have snowmobile rentals, but I believe those are operated by outside concessionaires

Some western resorts do a pretty good business with snowshoe rentals, I think Mount Snow did at one time but not sure if that survives?

Ice skating seems like a no-brainer, but it's not very common

Black NH did a horse thing for a while

A lot of these things seem to peter out

Cannonball

I don't think of tubing, ice skating, and other winter add-ons as being money makers in their own right. I think of them being little differentiators that might make a family pick one destination over another. Like "well let's go Cranmore instead, at least Mom and little johnny will have something to do while we're off skiing."

slatham

Jiminy Peak has (or had) a mountain coaster that ran during the winter. We went on it several times post skiing. This was probably 8-10 years ago.

ski_it

Bretton has their tree climbing zip experience. I forget the name. They also have a indoor climbing wall.
Loon has/had a train.
Jay had an outdoor skating area decades ago, until they paved it over with a indoor rink and a waterpark

Treilly

Boyne Mtn in Michigan an indoor water park, zip lines, far tire bike rentals and groomer rides

lotsoskiing

Thanks. I was not looking for a list of who does what. I was curious if anyone had any knowledge about how much they help the bottom line. Cannonball is thinking what I am thinking- that they are an outlet for the non-skiing part of the family, or for Day 3 of the vacation when things are scraped off and kids looking for something to do.

Just curious what sort of revenue they generate, relative to skiing. Coaster are an obvious huge up front investment; tubing not so much but takes a ton of snow and a lift.

drsmooth

The side by side Quad, makes Swain NY unique. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZKVEAWuaKJ0

The escape room located at the base, makes it even more unique. https://nickoftimeescapes.com/

rickbolger

lotsoskiing;c-46246 wrote Just curious what sort of revenue they generate, relative to skiing.

I was implying, but should've said more directly: Can't be much, since the operations seem to dwindle out after a season or two. If they were a money maker, they'd keep 'em running. Tubing aside.

JimK

Don't have any facts, just anecdotes :D

Massanutten VA built an indoor waterpark about a mile from the slopes about ten years ago. It does really good business with the casual, southerners that frequent that mtn. Good as in daily, large apres ski crowds. It's a big draw for families.

In 2005 I took a ski trip to The Homestead, VA. It's a resort that operates a 700' vertical ski area in winter. It's similar to the Mt Washington Hotel . In fact both hotels are Omni resorts. The Homestead is more known for summer golf, but has dining, shops, tubing, skating, horseback riding, etc in a huge, old resort complex. We were there over President's Weekend, yet at one point a gentleman, with family in tow, saw my daughter wearing ski clothes in the elevator and remarked, “they have skiing here?” The ski area represented a smaller, added attraction.

Bkroon9175

I would expect that summer and fall activities would be better for cash flow than a tremendous amount of onsite winter activities. I think a lot of families think they need the activities after skiing but after a day of skiing and everything that goes on with getting a family on and off the mountain, that a lot of the activities aren’t maximized due to parental exhaustion. I know swimming was always a post skiing activity for my family after skiing but in today’s Covid world that would happen for us right now.

teighs

I think it is a combination: Something for the non-skiers to do so the family/group chooses that resort over a similar on. Something to do in the evening after the slopes close. A hedge against bad weather during a vacation stay, rain or too cold, wind hold on lifts ect.