OPINION – A Response To “Ski operators snug with sky-high prices”

Thredbo offers a well rounded alpine resort experience alongside some of the best snowmaking in the world, but is it really reserved for the privileged few? Image:: Courtesy of Thredbo

Words By | Tess Cook

On Saturday 25 August the Sydney Morning Herald published an article in its business section titled ‘Ski operators snug with sky-high prices’, by the newspaper’
s business columnist Michael West.

From the title we can see the where the article will go, ski resorts  – he focused on the NSW resorts, Thredbo and Perisher – are charging their guests through the nose and loving it; that old chestnut. The ‘sky-high-prices’ of the Australian snow resorts are hardly news to the Australian snow community, the expense of skiing and snowboarding is just one in a litany of popular chairlift rants in this country, we’ve all whinged. West’s whinge had an extra element to it though, he was making a comparison between the prices charged at the resorts and the profits of their parent companies.

This is an interesting topic, one worthy of pursuit. By way of analysis, West offers the fact that AHL – Thredbo’s parent company – is a billion dollar cinema and hotel business and that the Packers, owners of Perisher, have been doing well with casinos.

Is it sufficient, in an article seeking to juxtapose high prices charged at resorts with profits of parent companies to give little more than statements on one hand that the parent companies are doing well and that chicken burgers at Perisher are $17.50 on the other?

Both are true, and West does stress the difficulties of finding financial information for the resorts – which is doubtless also true. However, surely an analysis of this sort needs to draw more of a connection between the two premises – are we trying to determine whether the resorts need to have such high prices? A legitimate question. If so, should there not be more engagement with the nuances of the situation, the costs of maintaining the resorts against the expenses, the relationship between the parent companies and the resorts – which are themselves separate entitles, the overall approach of the resorts to the running of their businesses?

Perhaps there is a case to answer. But just a basic understanding of business structure will tell us that the resorts are their own businesses and it’s unlikely Thredbo is seeing the benefits of candy bar sales at AHL’s Event Cinemas. As stated, West’s article is a whinge and to take the position of the chairlift whinger, why can’t the Packers send some of the Crown Casino money Perisher’s way? Surely they could gold-plate the whole resort? But does a chairlift style whinge have a place in a newspaper article purporting to bring in financial facts and an analysis of the businesses’ positions?

Apart from this premise, West makes some general statements about how expensive the resorts are, especially compared to international resorts, some of the statements could have done with a cursory fact check. Walk up to the ticket window in Aspen and you will pay around $100 for a one day ticket – as was pointed out in the Telegraph on Sunday in an article similarly looking at the cost of skiing in Australia. He quotes some food prices – $11.50 for chips for instance, $5 for coffee, which, while frustratingly expensive are likely from independent outlets in the resorts – not all, or even most businesses are owned by the resorts – and so have little baring on a discussion of the prices charged by resorts and the profits of their parent companies. Also, despite West’s implication that Australia’s lift systems are a long way behind the state of the art ‘bubble lifts’ in the Northern Hemisphere the Aussie lifts stack up pretty well against their overseas counterparts – few of whom have bubble lifts – and Australia could be said to be streets ahead when it comes to snowmaking and slopes maintenance, an achievement West barely mentions.

Moreover, West runs with that other Aussie ski industry favourite – the Thredbo-Perisher divide. It’s a long standing community joke that the ‘toffs’ ski at Thredbo – West uses the word patrician – and the ‘plebs’ ski at Perisher, It’s the kind of thing that makes for a humorous vein in a light hearted article but West offers no support for his claim that ‘the patricians of Thredders often deride Perisher as a bit flat, ugly and overrun with bogans who can’t ski properly.’ Or that Thredbo’s patricians are a captive market – skiing there because there is no other option – and proudly proclaiming their patrician status by doing so.  The Sydney Morning Herald reader, quite apart from the core ski community member, might be better served if West had found sources for these claims.

Nothing in West’s article is new news, the snow community has been asking why they pay so much money for comparatively little in Australia. And why the infrastructure is starting to look a little tired. People have raised points from the legitimate to the absurd in pursuit of this topic and West’s core question is an interesting one. But the link between AHL making billions of dollars selling movie tickets and chips costing $11.50 in Thredbo probably needs more analysis.

Similarly what he has to say about Thredbo versus Perisher is in the snow vernacular, and there are plenty of ways to draw comparisons between the Australian and international resorts, often unfavourable ones, but is West just writing off the cuff and making assumptions?

The Australian snow industry takes a lot of criticism, usually levelled at the cost-against-experience equation, and hopefully sensible criticism will sheet home to those who need to hear it and efforts will be made to ensure the Australian snow community is given the best possible experience for the prices they pay. That Perisher and Thredbo are offering their super-saving season pass deals for the second year running is one example of innovating approaches to doing so. But the line between chairlift whinge and sensible newspaper article should probably be maintained.

Unless the Packers gold-plate Perisher with casino money, in which case – well played West, well played.

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