Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz says European ski resorts would benefit from a megapass

Rob Katz thinks European skiers need an Epic Pass, and he may well be the one to bring it to them. But he’s not in a rush to do so.

In the Vail Resorts CEO’s first earnings call since returning to the chief executive role in May, Katz focused much of his comments on his core belief that skiers should commit their dollars to their ski passes before the season begins. That strategy, known as advance commitment, prompted Katz to launch the industry-changing Epic Pass during his first tenure as Vail Resorts CEO, offering skiers big savings by buying a discounted all-access pass before the season begins.

“In an industry that is uniquely exposed to weather volatility, advance commitment remains central to the guest experience, and our own thesis on how we drive value,” Katz said.

With European ski areas just as subject to unpredictable weather as those in the United States, Katz said there now exists in Europe the same potential for advance-commitment products that he saw when he came up with the Epic Pass in 2008. When Vail Resorts’ competitor Alterra launched its Ikon Pass in 2018, the Ikon and Epic passes became known as megapasses, and the advance-commitment strategy was solidified as the standard operating procedure for the U.S. ski industry.

“It took many years for even our pass product, let alone the rest of the industry to follow, and of course it would take time for that to happen (in Europe),” Katz said. “But if you look at it over the long haul, we certainly think there is a compelling opportunity, not only for us, but for the industry itself there.”

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A plethora of Austrian partnerships in place

Katz credited outgoing chief executive Kirsten Lynch with setting the company up “for the next phase of growth,” a phase that will likely see much focus overseas.

Lynch oversaw Vail Resorts’ first entries into Europe during her four years as CEO, acquiring Switzerland’s Andermatt-Sedrun in 2022 and Crans-Montana in 2023.

Those moves could be the start of a foundation on which Vail Resorts can rapidly grow in Europe, as it did under Katz in the U.S. (During the 2010s, Vail Resorts added 28 U.S. ski areas to its portfolio.)

But Katz made clear during the company’s June 5 earnings call that the road to a deeper European presence won’t mirror the playbook Vail Resorts used in North America.

“We understand that all of the dynamics are very different there,” he said.

The company’s plan, at the moment, is to use access to partner resorts — as opposed to only offering access to Vail Resorts-owned properties — to provide more offerings on its European menu. That plan was made apparent during May when the company announced new partnerships with a slew of Austrian ski areas, including Soelden, Saalbach and Zell am See-Kaprun, Mayrhofen and Hintertux, and Silvretta Montafon.

‘We can operate the resorts better’

A partnership-based pass is a much different product than a pass that offers access to the resorts owned by the company selling the pass.

Oftentimes, a partnership pass requires a complicated payout system in which the company that owns the pass pays out a portion of its pass-sales revenues to its resort partners based on the number of pass redemptions those resorts receive. Other times, a much less technologically advanced handshake deal is in place, where buying a pass to one resort gets you access to many.

Those options aren’t very appealing to Katz.

“Our preference is always going to be to own and operate a resort,” Katz told analysts. “One, we think we can operate the resorts better; and two, we also can collect data from the resorts, and we can be more flexible in the approach that we are using in terms of price, promotion and communication channels.”

Partnerships, Katz noted, can help “enhance the pass,” especially in regions where resort operators aren’t looking to sell. However, “there’s a big difference between having just a partner and owning and operating a resort,” he added. “That is a completely different business, of course, but it’s the business we’re in.”

The key to that business is discipline, Katz said.

“Within Europe, we absolutely are going to take a very disciplined approach, just given the opportunity we have we think to begin to create a network,” Katz said. “It’s critical for us to ensure that we are buying the right resort in the right location for the right price with the right upside — both in terms of how the skiing guest experience can be expanded, and obviously financially in the kind of returns that we can drive from that investment.”

Vail Resorts has not decided when it might release a Europe-specific pass product, but when it does, Katz said he wants it to be unique.

“I don’t think it’s necessary for us to own a certain amount of assets to be able to put a product out, but … to have a product that would be compelling, or make an impact, or be differentially important to the guest in some way, we do think that probably owning some additional assets might be critical for that,” Katz said. “At the end of the day, just like we have done historically, we pursue a lot of different things and we look to see where the openings are and where there are opportunities that we think ultimately drive value, and that’s where we put our resources and focus. And Europe will absolutely be there when we think it is the right time.”