Vail Resorts Inc. MTN, +2.12% said Friday that total skier visits at its North American resorts were down 1.7% in the season through Jan. 2, compared to the prior-year period and down 18.3% compared to the fiscal year 2020 season-to-date period, before the start of the pandemic. The ski resort operator said season-to-date total lift ticket revenue was up 15.9% compared to last year, but down 4.6% compared to the 2020 period. Ski school revenue was up 59.1% compared to last year and dining revenue was up 64.7%, but those metrics were down 25.2% and down 45.1% compared to the 2020 period. “In addition to the impacts associated with the challenging conditions, we believe that the significant acceleration of COVID-19 cases associated with the Omicron variant has negatively impacted our results along with the broader travel sector as we expect certain guests reconsidered travel plans and were impacted by related flight cancellations,” Chief Executive Kirsten Lynch said in a statement. The variant also reduced staffing levels as its own employees fell ill, she said. The company is still expecting to achieve its EBITDA goals for 2022, assuming there are no further COVID-related disruptions and conditions remain favorable. Shares were not yet active premarket, but have gained 3% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.08% has gained 22.8%.
