![]() It touched a nerve, and soon Instagram accounts appeared that were dedicated to shaming tourists, and calling attention to crowds and un-cool behavior of multi-resort pass-holders. Pretty soon mockery emerged, such as locals referring to the tourists as the IKON't Ski crowd. Now tourists from out of state often flocked to the resort with the best snow, increasing the crowds and reducing the fresh turns that the locals of that mountain used to enjoy. Having a season pass was something of an indication that you were a committed supporter of your local mountain, not a simple tourist or casual participant. With this has come some back-lash from some of the locals and hard-core skiers and snowboarders who previously were a fairly exclusive group of enthusiasts. The speed of IKON Pass adoption has been equally stunning. In its wake, another large ski resort conglomerate, Alterra, introduced a similar pass for their resorts called the IKON Pass. With the Epic Passes, tourists and families from cities like Atlanta and Houston could now justify a season pass, because they knew that if they were at least going to take one or two ski trips a year, they could pick up an Epic Pass and then watch to see which of Vail's resorts got the great snow that year, then plan their trip accordingly.Īdoption of the Epic Pass was swift, and in the years since its introduction Vail Resorts' market cap ($MTN) more than quadrupled. Previously, season pass customers were largely locals with enough time to ski their nearby resort extensively during the season. It also increased the TAM (total addressable market) for season passes. This move shifted what had been a fairly unpredictable and seasonal revenue into a stable recurring revenue model. This created an incentive for those who typically would plan a ski vacation or two per year to simply buy a season pass, because the season passes ended up being cheaper than simply purchasing day passes during their vacation time. Concurrent with this move, he lowered the price of the annual pass and raised the price of individual day passes at the resorts. ![]() Because Vail Resorts owns popular ski areas across the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, this meant that pass-holders could watch storm-cycles to decide where to ski and when. ![]() In 2008, two years after becoming CEO of Vail Resorts, Robert Katz introduced a single season pass that was valid at all Vail Resorts ski areas, and called it the Epic Pass. ![]()
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