Music festivals, better trail networks and new activities such as outdoor segwaying and electric mountain biking have helped B.C. resorts post a profitable summer season.
The strong U.S. dollar also helped draw international visitors while encouraging locals to stay closer to home, according to resort executives.
“It has been a great summer season with lots of events and amazing weather,” Whistler Blackcomb Holdings (TSX:WB) CEO Dave Brownlie told Business in Vancouver.
“Whistler and the community have been focusing on an events strategy. We’re seeing that build and bring more people to the resort, which is great. Every business is seeing the benefit of that strategy.”
The Pemberton Music Festival drew approximately 25,000 people to a site north of Whistler in July.
Brownlie said many festival-goers stayed in Whistler while others visited the resort on their way home.
Even more people attended the Squamish Valley Music Festival in August, which he said drew more visits to Whistler.
He estimated that his resort will have recorded more than 100,000 mountain bike visits this year by October 13, when it’s scheduled to close its gondola and bike park for the summer season.
Silver Star Mountain Resort, which is solidifying its reputation as B.C.’s second-largest mountain bike destination, is expected to have had more than 25,000 visits from cyclists this year.
“Our bike visits are up about 20% compared with last year,” said Ken Derpak, who became the resort’s managing director this summer.
Some of those visits were from participants in the first dual-sanctioned mountain bike race. Riders were eligible to earn points toward the B.C. Cup and the Northwest Cup regional mountain bike competitions.
Silver Star invested about $250,000 this summer in expanding its trail network to 30 kilometres of cross-country and 50 kilometres of downhill bike trails. That’s 20 added kilometres of cross-country trails and five extra kilometres of downhill trails compared with last year.
Derpak said his resort will spend about the same amount next year to increase its cross-country trail total to 50 kilometres.
Sun Peaks Resort also invested about $250,000 this summer to upgrade its bike trails and add new ski areas, said Christopher Nicolson, president of Tourism Sun Peaks, which is the resort’s marketing arm.
The resort now has 35 downhill mountain bike trails in its bike park and a total of about 70 kilometres of trails. Workers this year built the new six-kilometre Altitude Trail for cross-country riders.
Last year, the resort built the Big Rock Trail, which descends more than 15 kilometres to the village via McGillivray Lake from the top of the chairlift. It joins an extensive trail network, Nicolson said.
He added that new activities in 2014 include outdoor segwaying and electric mountain biking.
“This is off-road segwaying. So instead of it being for a security guy at the airport, this is for dirt roads and for people who want to see Sun Peaks with a very different perspective.”
Private businesses at the resort rent the specially designed, rugged Segway vehicles and electric mountain bikes, which enable people who are not hard-core athletes to ride and enjoy the terrain.
“When going downhill, they are like regular bikes,” Nicolson said. “But the electric mountain bikes allow an average person to ride uphill with more ease and spend more time out riding without busting a gut.”
