Mike Goar, Chief Operating Officer of Vail Resorts Switzerland: “Europe and its 190 million skiers are the logical target for our expansion”

Founded in 1962 -listed at The New York Stock Exchange- Vail Resorts is the first mountain resort company in the world and a leader in luxury destination-based travel in iconic locations. The first created resort Vail in Colorado became the namesake of the company. In 1980, the company built a second resort Beever Creek and then nothing was added until the mid 1990s when they acquired two large resorts in Colorado, Keystone and Breckenridge. Since the 2000s, the group has grown exponentially. Today, the company owns 42 mountain resorts in North America, Australia and Switzerland as well as partnerships with resorts that accept the ski Epic Pass which are primarily in Europe and Japan. Vail resort counts 55,000 employees around the world, sells 2.5 million Epic Pass products per year and has total sales of €2.7 billion.  

Mike Goar is leading all activities of Vail Resorts in Switzerland as Chief Operating Officer Switzerland. Vail Resorts bought Swiss ski destinations, Andermatt-Sedrun in 2021 and Crans-Montana this past summer. Before coming to Switzerland, Mike Goar was the Chief Operating Officer of Park City in Utah, the largest ski resort in the United States. A ski lover, Mike has been in the company since 2011. He talks to Luxury Tribune about the company vision and perspectives.

What are the strategies of the Group? 

Our strategy is to continue to build the network. Right now, in the United States and in North America, there are not very many resorts that are not currently part of a pass program or owned by some of the companies that own multiple resorts. There are not very many resorts in the US for sale right now. Perhaps it’s similar in Europe, there were not very many resorts for sale, which is why it takes some time, but the strategy is to continue to grow the network of resorts on both continents. And as it relates to Europe, ultimately the goal is to have enough resorts to create a network within Europe. 

Which model in the US do you want to replicate? 

I think it's important to understand the differences. It doesn’t mean depleting or replicating our business from North America to Europe but creating an Epic ski pass which is a great value to have access to multiple resorts. We also wanted to replicate the business model in terms of what is primary and fundamental to us: experience of a lifetime. 

We invest heavily in our resorts - 250 million in the coming year- investment in lifts, snow making, gastronomy and technology. Our goal is to enhance the guest experience. I think we have some differences though. In North America, I would say we have more integration of other businesses. For example, a ski school. In North America, they only have one ski school at each resort and the resort company owns the ski school. In Europe, on the opposite, there are multiple ski schools and multiple owners. We are not looking to change that. Another example would be the gastronomy. In the US, once you are in the mountains, we typically own and operate all the restaurants. It’s different in Europe and we don’t want to change that either.