SAM Magazine—Jay, Vt., June 19, 2024—Jay Peak Resort unveiled plans to freeze or reduce pricing on a variety of its products for both this summer and the upcoming 2024-25 winter season. The initiative, dubbed Mission Affordability, will freeze rates on day tickets and reduce pricing on the Mission Affordable 4-pack, as well as certain menu items, ski and ride school products, and activities such as golf rounds, with plans to grow the list of cost freezes and reductions throughout the summer.

The initiative was conceived in response to inflation in the U.S. economy. “While Jay Peak is in the business of staying in business, the resort acknowledges the broader economic indices like inflation,” general manager Steve Wright said in a press release. “If it is hurting Jay Peak, it is also hurting its guests. Jay Peak may not be able to impact all things, but we promise to look at everything and freeze and/or reduce pricing wherever we can, and wherever the broadest impact will be.”

Motivation. Wright elaborated in an email to SAM. “There’s something to be said, we think, to acknowledging the problems our guests are facing and responding in a way we’d want a business that we consider part of our lives to act,” he said.

“It just felt like the overwhelming narrative, both in and out of ski industry circles, is cost,” he added. “Not all of that is completely fair because the media attaches its headline wagon to window rates when there are hundreds of ways to get much more affordable access. But $18 slices of pizza don’t help the industry’s case that ski vacations can be affordable. As an industry we need to do a better job of not making guests tie themselves into knots to find the best deals.”

Methodology. While aspects of the initiative are still being formed, Wright said resort leadership looked across all lines of business for potential reductions or freezes. “There’s no exact science to it—we simply reviewed each product, compared it against the costs within our comp set, looked at when they last received increases, and asked ourselves if we could live with slightly worse margins; in just about every instance, we said yes,” he said.

As an outcome of that process, the resort intends to implement a wide variety of price reductions. The Mission Affordable 4-pack could be reduced by as much as $10, said Wright. Additionally, pizzas are going down by $1, golf rounds have been reduced by $10, movie ticket prices were cut in half to $5, climbing wall rates decreased by 25 percent, and certain lodging packages will also see a 25 percent decrease.

Impacts? While the move made some noise on social media, it’s not a marketing effort aimed solely at driving increased volume. “We think a natural result might be some additional volume but, personally, I wouldn’t be surprised to see incremental visitor spend on per caps as a result,” said Wright. “Net margin for us on a singular purchase basis will likely deteriorate as, in many instances, we’re paying more for things like chicken fingers and t-shirts, but we’re flattening and reducing the cost to the guest.”

Jay Peak’s parent company, Pacific Group Resorts, Inc. (PGRI), has long built its brand around affordability, with the Mission Affordable pass suite as well as a free learn to ski and ride program. PGRI closed on its acquisition of Jay Peak in November 2022 after a competitive bid process.