What a Winter For Recreation!

Vermont is wrapping up one of its best winter tourist seasons in recent memory, thanks to an ideal combination of significant and persistent snowfall that drew millions of visitors here to enjoy a variety of recreational activities.

According to the Department of Tourism and Marketing, Rooms and Meals Tax revenue generated during December, January and February was up $2.08 million (6.94%) over the previous winter season, and $1.73 million (5.67%) over the same period two years ago.

Many of Vermont’s ski resorts, Nordic centers and snowmobiling trails remained open through mid-April with excellent conditions, giving local businesses a late-season boost during what is traditionally a quiet time in Vermont.

We had a very good year," said Merrill D. Harlan, sales manager at Lucky’s Motor Sports in Royalton.

"The best part about the season was that there was a regained passion for the sport of snowmobiling. Not only did we sell a ton of sleds, both used and new but it was fun. People had fun buying them and we had fnn selling them.

"It was back to the way it should be.

Every month showed a marked increase over last year’s poor sales, he said, with one month showing a 200% increase. About half of the new snowmobiles were sold to local folks and about half to downcountry visitors.

"There were lot of new people, people who just decided this was the year to do it," he said

Snowmobiling accessories made their presence felt around central Vermont Christmas trees, too, he said.

"The fact that we got our snow in the middle of December was extremely key. That’s an invitation for a real nice white Christmas."

"Anybody who didn’t ride this winter, it was just because they didn’t want to," quipped Butch Greenwood at L. W. Greenwood & Sons in East Randolph.

One of the biggest snowmobile dealers in Central Vermont, Greenwoods ordered about 100 new sleds and "we pretty well sold out of them," he said. "We’re very, very happy the way it turned out."

That was in spite of the rising price of gas, which is a problem for that industry as well as others. Two-stroke snowmobiles get just 12 miles per gallon of gas, while the more expensive four-stroke models get 18-20 mpg.

His main customer base thiss year, he said, mostly came from local residents.

Area snowmobile clubs, Greenwood heard, were happy, both because of memberships and because there were not a lot of landowner trail closings, so that the clubs had low maintenance costs in setting up the trail system.

"Everybody ended the season on a positive note," the East Randolph businessman concluded. "And we’re anticipating another good year next year."

Ski Areas Still Open

A handful of ski areas are still open in the last week of April, and the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers closed its snowmobiling trails for the season on April 16. VAST’s entire 6,200-mile snowmobiling trail network opened for the season on Dec. 16, and the sale of VAST trail passes increased from 27,000 to 32,000.

The National Weather Service in Burlington reported the fourth-snowiest December on record, and the snowiest February ever with 42.3 inches, beating the previous record of 34.3 inches set in 1958. In December, the Vermont Ski Areas Association had its highest percentage of early season terrain open in eight years.

"The winter ski season has been phenomenal," said Parker Riehle, president of Ski Vermont, the Vermont Ski Areas Association.

"The season was marked by not only record snowfall, but with perfect timing. Every weekend and key holiday period started with a fresh blanket of snow."

Visitors make 13.4 million trips to Vermont each year, spending $1.57 billion, according to VDTM research. The research shows that 28.3% of those visits, or 3.8 million, are during the winter season.