Skiers and snowboarders wait to be loaded into the Red Pine Gondola at Park City Mountain Resort on the resort’s opening day in November.
Park Record File Photo

Between Christmas and New Years, Park City hotels are said to be almost 100% booked for several days, suggesting the likelihood of a congested vacation route for the tourism industry.

The Park City Chamber / Bureau’s latest occupancy forecast, dated December 15th, showed the numbers rose from 65% on December 24th to a high of 99% on December 29th.

Forecasts for other dates during the holidays:

• 67% on Dec 25

• 83% on Dec. 26

• 92% on December 27th

• 96% on December 28th

• 95% on Dec 30th

• 87% on December 31st

• 73% are Jan. 1

• 58% are Jan. 2

The forecasts for the holidays are well above the actual numbers from a year ago as well as the forecasts for the same dates last winter. The sharp differences in forecasts between the two years underscore the widespread concern about the spread of the novel coronavirus that affected the first few weeks of the last ski season.

The forecasts for January, which is important because the Sundance Film Festival is planned for this month, are also higher than last year.

The forecast is based on a survey of 18 properties representing a range of traditional types of accommodation such as economy hotels, luxury hotels and short term vacation rentals. Bookings and cancellations since December 15th are not included.

The strong numbers are likely influenced by the fact that both Christmas and New Years are Saturdays, giving many people a three-day weekend in a row.

“While we are cautiously optimistic about hotel bookings for January, we have to be realistic in our expectation that some of this will decline due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in the US, which is affecting travel plans.” said Jennifer Wesselhoff, President and CEO of the Chamber / Office, in a prepared response to a query from Park Record.

Wesselhoff also said the chamber / office is carefully monitoring “Covid cases across the country and adjusting our advertising measures accordingly”.

She found that the weather affects travelers to Park City. Although warm, dry weather marked the first days of the ski season, the snow has now arrived and the National Weather Service’s Thursday morning forecast called for snow by Wednesday.

“We are all too aware of the fragility of tourism and can never ‘count our eggs before they are hatched,'” she said.

The number of accommodations is critical to the overall Park City economy as visitors are also spending money in the resort, restaurant, retail, and transportation sectors.

Meanwhile, Wesselhoff said the prognoses were in the range of those during the winter of 2019-2020 before the closings forced by the coronavirus, which ended this ski season prematurely.

“Compared to the 2019/2020 season before the Covid season or a mostly ‘normal year’, the bookings in the books are in line with the bookings in the same period, with some days exceeding the historical actual values ​​and other days showing an underperformance” , she said .

Park City’s economy during the 2020-2021 ski season, the first full season of the coronavirus era, exceeded expectations as skiers and snowboarders arrived in large numbers for an activity they saw as a safe option given the spread of the disease.