Vail Resorts has bought (another) one of North America and the world's leading ski areas, Stowe.
It's the latest on an ever more impressive shopping list for Vail which most recently acquired Whistler Blackcomb, and previously made a 'hostile take over' of Park City in Utah which it merged with the neighbouring Canyons area to create the new largest ski area in the US. It has also bought Australia's biggest resort, Perisher, in the past few years.
"We're thrilled to add Stowe Mountain Resort to our family of world-class mountain resorts. With the investments in both mountain infrastructure and base area facilities that AIG has made over the years, Stowe Mountain Resort has become the premier, high-end resort for East Coast skiers and snowboarders. We look forward to working with AIG to continue enhancing the guest experience and to ensure the resort's long-term success," said Rob Katz, chairman and chief executive officer of Vail Resorts.
Stowe is the first major East Coast North American resort that Vail resorts has purchased. With the exception of Perisher all of its destination resorts are in Colorado, California, Utah and BC, although the company did acquire a few mid-Western ski areas a few years ago, encouraging skiers based there to buy a season pass which enables them to ski at its western resorts.
Vail Resorts appears to now be (or is close to being) the largest ever multiple ski-resort operator depending on how you measure the business. The French based Compagnie des Alpes is generally regarded as the biggest but Vail now owns about as many resorts as CdA and seems to be expanding.
There is a history of American ski businesses that have grown and contracted over several decades, including whistler's former owner's Intrawest and the American Skiing Company which once owned around a dozen US resorts, but none has previously owned so many of North America's top resorts as Vail.