An interview with Peter Brulisauer, Vail Resorts Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Australia and Perisher.

In the lead up to winter, it was a group effort from the Australian Ski Areas Association (ASSA), how did you approach approval for having a winter season?
We were trying to make the best of the information that we could get and thought that we were going to be far better off working as an industry to find solutions then going it alone. With Colin Hackworth as CEO and Belinda Trembath as Chair of ASSA, we had to assess our self to whether there was a way to we could safely operate and if we thought there was then develop that and communicate that to the government. All the resorts come together to engage more broadly with industry and government to put a position forward that we thought we could operate in a manner that would be safe for our guests and staff, and the communities that we operate in.

It was obvious you had to show you could reduce number capacity but how could you keep your season pass and still run under that capacity?
That was obviously a challenge, but it is one we think we have figured out, so too has Mt Buller. It is all about data and we understand pretty well for many years based on the pass we sell, when those pass holders visit us and that is always somewhat dependant on snow. We have very good data and were able to make a decision that would enable season pass holders to visit us. As you know, prior to the 13 July that is through a reservations system, so we are able to control that visitation. After that we think we will have sufficient resort capacity to allow both pass and pay to visit us.

In July school holidays you are selling multi day tickets, how will you know how many days to sell and still have space for season pass holders, especially if there is limited terrain open?
It was also going to be a big challenge for all the resorts whether you are selling season pass or selling day tickets. If you are selling any products in advance of the day, you are relying on what our experience has been based on historical snow fall patterns. We have a later start this year and because the way the weather conditions have been of late, we have had to factor that in terms of tickets that we have been willing to sell and reservations for pass holders to have regard to the amount of snow and terrain that we think we will have open.

For school holiday limits, season pass holders must register, will there be some people who miss out?
Yes, they will, and we have been pretty clear about that in saying there are no guarantees that people will be able to secure a spot prior to the 13 July. We told pass holders that if they would like a refund on their pass tell us by 19 June and we will give you a full refund. We are trying to give our passholders as many choices as we can as we navigate through this COVID 19 situation so that we can provide a season pass for those people later in the season when hopefully restrictions ease. But unfortunately, it does mean that in this early season period there will be a reservations system and there will be limits.

Skitube – you must limit numbers and have refunded the season pass component. How will Skitube look and cost for those people who prefer not to drive to Perisher?
Yes, we have refunded the Skitube component as we have refunded pass refund protection which was a product we used to sell to give added security which we are providing for free – called Epic coverage. Things are changing quickly, and we are trying to adapt the Skitube capacity as quickly as we can as we hear NSW government announcements. The revised timetable will be on a 25 minute basis all through the day and prices on our website.

Now that restrictions have eased, did you take an educated guess the situation would improve, was that a key decision of keeping the seasons pass?
Yes, we had to make some assumptions has to how we plan the season. Australians were doing the right thing and doing what the govt asked and we were seeing the curve flatten. We thought restrictions would continue to ease, so we were hopeful that we would be able to sell things like our season pass and we didn’t what to slam the door shut on those options. So too with the train, we are looking at putting in place a pricing system that will allow people to continue to use the train and hopefully increase the capacity through the winter. At some point we might we able to offer a Skitube season pass for the remainder of the winter.

Fast forward to August, if snow conditions are good and the whole resort is open can Perisher handle all capacity of season pass visitors and day ticket people?
There is a couple of things a play – what are the restrictions going to look like in August and we don’t know. But I guess there is a scenario where there are no restrictions in August and in which case the answer to your questions, yes, we can and always have handled August crowds and we will again this year. Offsetting that we are in are in a recession and unemployment is climbing and we are very mindful of the fact that some of the guests that previously visited us won’t be in a position to do so and that will no doubt dampen the demand to the extent of which we are not sure right now.

It is something we are keeping a very close eye on to try and understand how much ticketing capacity we can sell. You would know from our sale, we have only sold to 19 July and that is one of the strategies we’re employing to give us a good picture to what is happening with restrictions, what is happening with snow.