Mountain skiers tend to be more affluent than the general population. While they are a small segment of the population, we think that the early read of demand for Vail Resort’s Epic Day Pass is a reasonable read for affluent consumers' intent to spend on outdoor activity over the next six months. Earlier this week on Vail’s latest quarterly update, management shared that season pass sales through Sep. 22 were strong, increasing +7% in units and +11% in dollars compared to last year (and more or less consistent with commentary from May calling for unit growth of +6% and sales dollars growth of +11%). Management cited particularly strong pass sales growth from both renewing pass holders and new pass holders, highlighting that "incremental growth with new pass holders and seeing growth in every geography, destination, international, all of our core local geographies as well and across all product segments...We're seeing strong renewals across all different levels of our pass holders versus prior year, which we are thrilled with because it's critical to success of the past program to have that loyalty and those renewals while we're also going after new pass holders and bringing people in.” (This year’s standard pass goes for $950.)
