CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The state's ski resorts finished the all-important holiday season "about a snowflake ahead of last year," a spokesman said.

"The numbers are still shaking out but we can say there were over 200,000 skier visits during the three-week period from mid-December to just after the New Year's holiday," said Joe Stevens, spokesman for the West Virginia Ski Areas Association. A skier visit is defined as one person visiting a ski area for all or any part of a day or night one time.

"The good side of that story is, if you're looking at national figures, there are reports out West that some of the larger resorts' holiday season was down 25 to 30 percent," Stevens said. "So we bucked a national trend."

State Tourism Commissioner Betty Carver said, "We're all very anxious to see how travel is affected by the economy. We hope people will realize we have a lot of this type of product and perhaps we're not as expensive as if you were planning to go to the Western states or the Northeast. I think our geographic location puts us in a good situation.

"I hope people are beginning to realize that with our snowmaking we have a great product here and hope people realize they can have fun with friends and family without having such a huge investment," Carver said.

Stevens said the holidays are a critical time because in many cases they comprise 25 to 30 percent of a resort's income for the winter ski season.

Last year's holiday was "pretty good," and this year's results are encouraging "taking into consideration the economic situation facing everyone in the United States right now," Stevens said.

Terry Pfeiffer, president of Winterplace, near Ghent, said, "We had a very good holiday season through this past Sunday. We're ahead of last year's visitations. That's a good sign for us, considering the other variables.

"I think we're seeing some people who might typically get on a plane and go to the western Rockies staying closer to home, enjoying the ski areas in the state," Pfeiffer said. "The price of gas is in our favor right now. And the weather was good. One thing that can really help is good weather. We had snow days. We had some of what we call 'deck days,' where people sit out and enjoy their decks. We had a little bit of everything in a 10-day period."

Stevens said a majority of skiers in West Virginia are coming from Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas and Virginia.

Southern residents who ski in West Virginia "are guaranteed a white Christmas, which always seems to be on peoples' minds," Stevens said.

It was helpful that New Years Day fell on a Thursday. "Many people also had Friday off, which created a long weekend," he said. "That definitely benefited our visitation." In addition, "a number of resorts offered holiday deals which attracted cost-conscious families."

"On the downside, the weather throughout the period was good except for right around Christmas Day and the day after Christmas, when we had some 'underdeveloped snow,' which most people would call 'rain.' But on the other side, a lot of people use Christmas Day and the day after as travel days, so the rain didn't come in the middle of some people's visit.

"The holiday numbers are not only good news for the resorts themselves in the form of revenue from lift ticket sales and so on, they're also good news for businesses that rely on the ski season, such as the hotels around Exit 44 near Winterplace, the off-resort restaurants, the gas stations in Parkersburg where people from Columbus may stop to fill-up, and the gas stations around Bluefield," Stevens said.

West Virginia's ski areas include five Alpine and two Nordic areas. The Alpine areas are Canaan Valley Resort, Oglebay Resort, Snowshoe Mountain Resort, Timberline Four Seasons Resort and Winterplace Ski Resort. The Nordic areas are Whitegrass Touring Center in Tucker County and the Elk River Touring Center in Pocahontas County.

Contact writer George Hohmann at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 304-348-4836.
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