'Some structural damage' from wildfire near Fort Nelson, B.C., mayor confirms
More than one home has been damaged or lost due to a massive wildfire outside of the B.C. community of Fort Nelson, the mayor confirmed Wednesday.
In any normal winter, Cameron Birch and his family of five would pack their bags for an all-inclusive vacation somewhere warm and sunny.
But when the pandemic kept them from booking a trip south, the Kelowna, B.C., family looked closer to home and bought season passes to Big White Ski Resort for the first time.
"Last year was a little bit of a trial. Did we know if we were going to utilize it? Not really," said Birch, who took the plunge and spent around $2,500 on season passes for his wife and three children aged between eight and 12.
It ended up being a hit, with the family getting around 25 days on the hill, sometimes just to spend a couple of hours of the day outside. Now, Birch expects to buy a pass every year, and says many of his friends in the community will do the same.
Strength in season pass sales has been one bright spot in an otherwise difficult year for Western Canada's big mountain resorts as travel restrictions and other pandemic-related measures caused a plunge in high-spending destination skiers.
Michael Ballingall, senior vice-president of Big White, said last winter was one of their best ever for season passes, even as individual ticket sales dropped by roughly 80 per cent.
He said many residents took a chance on the resort because it was one of the few activities that would almost definitely be available during the pandemic.
"People knew the mountain was going to open, and they put down on the early bird season pass, so they at least had something they knew they'd be able to do," said Balingall, who said new skiers gave it a try, and lapsed skiers rediscovered an old love.
"New Canadians are getting introduced to the sport at a greater pace than they've ever done before, and a percentage of them fell in love with the sport."
The other thing is you had lapsed skiers and snowboarders who remembered the thrill of sliding, and we think that's caused a rebirth."
The surge in interest last winter could point to a strong long-term outlook, but experts in the industry say it also did little to help what was a disastrous year for ski resorts in the short-term financial picture.
Season-pass sales create much less revenue per visit than a single-day ticket purchased by a tourist. And the Canada West Ski Areas Association says international tourists will often spend four or five times as much money while at the resort compared with locals.
Industry experts say international visitors are the ones who buy tour packages, ski rentals and lessons, top-shelf liquor, fancy meals and all the other things that keep the resort and local economy churning.
More often, Canadian consumers are the ones coming to a resort with a car full of groceries and some existing knowledge of the sport and surrounding area.
"What we're seeing so far is that season-pass sales may be strong, and for some areas that may be a good thing, but in other areas it completely masks the significant net loss in revenue overall," said Christopher Nicolson, president & CEO of the CWSAA.
He said resorts near cities like Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton have more to gain from strong season pass sales, as their business model already depend less on international tourists and they have a larger population to draw from.
But smaller communities will continue to struggle until ticket sales from international visitors pick up again.
Nicolson doesn't expect that to happen immediately. He believes it will take years before resorts return to pre-pandemic visitation levels.
Robyn Mitz, a program co-ordinator and instructor for Selkirk College's ski operations course in Nelson, B.C., said some smaller resorts will look at new ticketing models to raise revenues in the interim.
One strategy for resorts that Mitz pointed out is a 10-punch pass. It lets locals save on each day of skiing and benefit from flexibility, while allowing resorts to profit more off of return visitors.
She said strong retail sales for ski and snowboard equipment last year are also confidence inspiring for strong demand from local markets in year to come. While skis were not as difficult to find as bikes in 2020, many products sold out quicker than usual.
Back in Kelowna, Ballingall said one of the big positives from strong season pass sales is a sense of confidence for resorts going into the ski season.
He said resorts often base their expectations for the season -- and their ability to hire and prepare operations -- on cash flow generated from pass sales in off-season months.
"The business survives off lift ticket sales and maintains itself on season pass sales," said Ballingall.
"The day that you open you've got to staff everything and groom the runs, and if your season pass sales can cover those costs, then your day ticket sales are going to be what's able to keep you going."
For skiers like Birch, a father in a family of five, the season pass represents a sense of community.
When indoor gatherings were banned last year, he said the ski resort was the place where friends could spend time together, whether it was playing in the snow or making s'mores in the parking lot.
This year, he says he's looking forward to more of the same.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2021.
More than one home has been damaged or lost due to a massive wildfire outside of the B.C. community of Fort Nelson, the mayor confirmed Wednesday.
A warning from a Saskatoon driver about using your fast-food app while in the drive-thru line — a trip to get some free lunch cost him a lot more than he bargained for.
An 'unrepentant' YouTuber has been ordered to pay $350,000 in damages as compensation for a 'relentless' campaign of defamation waged online against a business owner and his company, the B.C. Supreme Court has ruled.
Chief Robert Michell says relief isn't the right word to describe his reaction as the search begins for unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school he attended in northern British Columbia.
While it's unclear what these closures might mean for the 27 restaurants in Canada, Red Lobster is expected to file for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. this month.
A man from B.C.'s Lower Mainland has been sentenced to four years behind bars after shooting a sex worker in the back during a drug-fuelled 43rd birthday.
Nearly six dozen dogs were seized from a home Wednesday morning by the Winnipeg Humane Society. It is the largest known seizure of animals in the city’s history.
Of the $40-million Aiden Pleterski was handed over two years, documents show he invested just over one per cent and instead spent $15.9 million on "his personal lifestyle." The 25-year-old Oshawa, Ont. man was arrested and charged with fraud and money laundering on Tuesday.
A man with a long record of dangerous driving told investigators he smoked marijuana oil and took prescription drugs hours before he sideswiped a bus, killing eight Mexican farmworkers and injuring dozens more, according to an arrest report unsealed Wednesday.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.