In winter’s favorite town, the more snow, the better for business. How has this winter’s weather affected skiing and hotel stays in Park City?
So far this ski season, Park City resorts have received 275 inches of snow. That’s 75 inches more than the entire 2017-18 season, and there are still six weeks left until closing day.
At the Park City Chamber/Bureau 2019 economic update Tuesday, Chamber/Bureau CEO Bill Malone said that, despite less powder to play in last season, Park City resorts still counted nearly 1.8 million skier days. The record is two million, and it was set during the 2015-16 ski season. Malone bets that this year’s season will hit two million, too.
“Obviously, part of that equation is visitation, but part of that is I know I’m skiing more this year than I did last year, and so I think a lot of us are out there a lot more,” Malone said.
As for hotel occupancies in 2019, Park City is above average for January, February and March, compared to 16 other mountain resort communities in the nation. Malone says the numbers for average daily rates are even stronger.
"We’re in the top three destinations in terms of average daily rate for January, February and March," Malone said. "It all goes to show that our guests are spending dollars coming here—we obviously know they spend when they’re here—but they’re also making that judgment to select us and are pretty strong and comfortable with those rates."
Looking ahead to the remainder of the ski season, Malone says hotel occupancies will peak this upcoming weekend, and the numbers hold steady until April 1.
