By admin 
What’s Vail Resorts’ biggest goal going forward? Selling more Epic Passes? Not quite.
Instead, according to a recent announcement, the company plans to focus on the “guest experience,” improving amenities like on-mountain food and ski lessons, apparently banking on future growth tied to visitors having a better time at Vail Resorts’ ski areas than at other mountains.
“For years, Vail Resorts focused on building the Epic Pass model and expanding its resort network,” said CEO Rob Katz in a press release.
“That strategy helped establish the company’s position today, but the Pass and acquisitions were not the end goal,” he continued. “The next chapter of growth for Vail Resorts is about delivering a guest experience that undeniably leads the ski industry and is best in class in the travel sector.”
In practice, that even includes a willingness to go toe-to-toe with Deer Valley, Utah-the neighbor of Vail Resort’s Park City Mountain and one of the highest-end ski resorts on the continent, known for top-tier food and attentive employees at a premium price.
“We’re absolutely targeting [going] above Deer Valley and above any of our current resorts,” Katz told TheSalt Lake Tribune. “Because what we’re talking about is adding services and components to the experience that don’t exist today in the ski industry.”
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The strategy focuses on five pillars: improved rentals, lessons (private ones next winter at Beaver Creek and Vail Mountain will be upgraded to include “concierge services, white-glove gear rental and enhanced customer support”), app technology, staff investments, and food.
As for dining, the most popular menu items-chili, burgers, pizza, fries, hot dogs, chicken fingers, and mac and cheese-are set to get a makeover with “higher-quality ingredients and refined presentation,” according to the release. Vail Resorts said those tweaks won’t come with higher prices beyond inflation next winter.
Katz told the Tribune that the changes also won’t mean the relative affordability of Park City is going away. While day ticket prices at Park City have crested $300, the mountain remains on the Epic Pass, which costs $1,119, around $300 less than the competing Ikon Pass, making for a solid deal, at least for people who ski regularly.
Rather, it seems Vail Resorts is targeting both budget and luxury clientele.
“We’ll have somebody who’s a billionaire with their multiple private instructors skiing on the same lift and on the same run as somebody who got a discount coupon … and has a sandwich that they put in their backpack,” he said, per the Tribune.
While the announcement didn’t include many details about the skiing itself at Vail Resorts’ mountains, it did note that during the transformation of the “guest experience,” the company will “maintain its industry-leading investments” in ski lifts and take an “aggressive approach to snowmaking strategy” for the “best possible early-season and in-season conditions.”
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This story was originally published July 14, 2026 at 10:41 AM.