Vail to take over an Aussie fave, Whistler Blackcomb
Skiing across the globe just got easier (and a little more exciting), with Whistler expected to be added to the Epic Season Pass.
Vail Resorts have announced plans to acquire Canadian ski resort Whistler Blackcomb, adding to its line-up of 9 ski resorts worldwide already offered in its iconic Epic Season Pass.
“As the number one ranked and most visited resort in North America, Whistler Blackcomb has enjoyed tremendous success. Partnering with the geographically diversified Vail Resorts and extending its successful Epic Pass products to Whistler Blackcomb are customer-focused ways of securing the long-term future of our resort, our industry and our community,” Dave Brownlie, Whistler Blackcomb’s CEO said.
Currently Vail Resorts’ subsidiaries operate nine mountain resorts and two urban ski areas, including Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado; Park City in Utah; Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada; Perisher in Australia; Wilmot Mountain in Wisconsin; Afton Alps in Minnesota and Mt. Brighton in Michigan, all of which are included in their Epic Season Pass products.
Vail Resorts will integrate Whistler Blackcomb into its Epic Season Pass and other season pass products for the 2017-18 season (Whistler Blackcomb to honour the existing season pass products for 2016-17).
The group most recently added Australian-resort Perisher to its line-up, and following the deal, will also operate Whistler Blackcomb in a similar fashion maintaining its unique brand and character with strong local Canadian leadership.
“With our combined experience and expertise, together we will build upon the guest experience at Whistler Blackcomb while preserving the unique brand and character of the resort as an iconic Canadian destination for guests around the world,” Rob Katz, chairman and CEO of Vail Resorts said.
According Vail Resorts, it plans to invest substantially in Whistler Blackcomb’s mountain infrastructure and growth plans.
“Combining Whistler Blackcomb with Vail Resorts’ portfolio of outstanding resorts provides Whistler Blackcomb with increased financial strength, marketing exposure, guest relationships and broadens the geographic diversity of our company with resorts across the United States, as well as in Australia and Canada,” Brownlie said.
Whistler Blackcomb will nominate one member of its board to the Vail Resorts board of directors, and Brownlie will continue leading Whistler Blackcomb as the resort’s chief operating officer and will become a member of the senior leadership team of Vail Resorts’ mountain division.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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yeh Copper is one of the worlds best resorts, while places like Vail & Whistler are just too big & too crowded. You can still get to USA west coast from Sydney & Brisbane departing end of Dec/early Jan & coming home 19Jan or later for only $1399 & easy to get to Colorado using Qantas ff pts.
Saw the ads on gumtree & ebay, which makes sense as virtually free to advertise there.
o Whistler will just become a branch office of Vail?. Great(NOT). Think I’ll stick to non-Vail resorts that don’t have very long lift lines. Did hear about some major resort in Colorado,that gave all Australians who booked their lift passes with an Australian wholesaler, super cheap passes like $20 a day with kids free & they get to use ski school lines.
yes it’s called Copper
what a disaster !!! Have been avoiding Whistler cos of the horrendous lift queues & this will just make things worse. Soon, they’ll be selling q jumping lift passes, so the poor bastards with normallift passes will have to wait forever, just to get on a lift.
so Whistler to get even more crowded. Another reason to not go there. I’ll stick to Copper Mt Colorado, where we get lift line priority, the skiing is better & it’s much cheaper & easier to get to.