Drop in ski-ing affects Mt Hutt

Press, 3 October 1979, Page 6

Drop in ski-ing affects Mt Hutt

A $700,000 expansion programme at the Mount Hutt skifield has been delayed another year because of a drop in patronage.

The planned development included the installation of' a table-chair lift, which would double the available! ski-ing area and which was expected to increase patronage about 25 per cent Al-1 though construction began, last year, the lift will not be! ready until the 1981 season.! The chairman of the Mount j Hutt Ski and Alpine Tourist I Company. Ltd. (Mr P. Yeoman) said yesterday there had been a 50 50 chance that) the treble-chair lift would bej completed in time for the) 1980 ski-ing season, but this) had depended on determining! a need for it. and on the, company’s ability to pay for! it. i Attendance was down only sligthly on last season’s fig-1] ures, but effectively this re-(l presented a bigger drop in' ] patronage than the figures]I

: suggested. Like most other I 'New Zealand ski-fields, 11 Mount Hutt has experienced] I and has expected a growth j ! of about 20 per cent each! ! year in the number of skiers I to the hills. No such' growth occurred this year. 1 ! Mr Yeoman said this meant! !there was no immediate need! I for the expansion at Mount! Hutt and so construction of!< the treble-chair lift would not]: be comnleted until the end ofii (the 1980-1981 summer. Nop (decision had been madep I whether there would be any 1 iconstruction this summer. 1 I Mr Yeoman said he was inot upset about the delay in It I the planned development of;I Ithe ski-field. |1 ; “It’s all part of an over-allij plan. Development goes in 1 leaps and bounds: this hap-!I pens to be one of those stock t taking years. There aren't 1 '

jmany people taking leaps this year,” he said. I Gross revenue this winter (amounted to more than I $900,000 which was up on 'last year, and which represents a 500 per cent increase ■on turnover since the ski- ! field opened commercially in 11973. I Work already done on the !chair-lift has cost between I $30,000 and $40,000. Mr Yeopnan said the rest of the (money needed for the expansion programme would come from shareholders’ funds and • i loans. Peak daily attendance at the ski-field now stands at 2500. When the treble chairlift is opened the figure is expected to rise to about 3500 The areas opened up would be suitable for experienced and intermediate skiers, Mr Yeoman said.