Perisher General Manager Interview

from Snowy Mountains Magazine - Autumn 2023

Your 2023 Winter Snow Holiday

PERISHER Resort’s new general manager Belinda Trembath spoke with Snowy Mountains Magazine in late 2022 for a twopart interview on a range of subjects.

Belinda was experiencing her ﬁrst season overseeing Perisher Resort in 2022, having presided over Hotham for well over a decade. Having worked in various departments including ski instructing and marketing roles, she has a comprehensive knowledge of the snow industry.

We published the ﬁrst part in our summer edition, and here we continue with key points the public would ﬁnd both topical and interesting. It must be commended that Belinda answered openly and honestly on a range of questions.

Always a question of interest is the sale of season passes and how busy the resort is as a by-product of the popular and well-priced season pass. In our December summer edition Belinda explained that season pass and ticket sales are the cornerstone of their business strategy, and that limiting or capping the Epic Australia Pass season pass or day ticket sales are not on the agenda.

SMM: Let’s talk about tra c on the roads to Perisher Valley and parking. Have the NSW Government failed that responsibility through lack of infrastructure to address this problem?

BT: I think the work that’s gone into the Special Activation Precinct for the snowy region has obviously been signiﬁcant, there’s been a lot of community consultation. I think it’s time for the rubber to hit the road. They (government) have announced some funding to the region and we’re really keen to continue to work with government and all the agencies involved, and there are many, to get some investment into this region. It is overdue, there’s no doubt about it.

I think when you reﬂect back on why

Skitube was built in the ﬁrst place, this area has been popular for a really long time, and it’s popular for good reason, it provides a great experience for people and we want that to continue. Obviously road access is one thing, public transport is another. The success of the bus trial was great to see. Very, very buoyed by early indications from the department of transport that that trial may continue next year, or may even expand. We’re certainly supportive of a multi-pronged approach to accessing the resort, which includes Skitube, includes obviously parking, for those who want to head up in their own vehicle, it would be great if more people carpooled.

SMM: You have come from Hotham with good on snow bed numbers. Can we compare beds in Perisher, it is not a very good ratio of beds to visitation in the resort?

BT: I think the beds are absolutely another part of the solution and working with government to understand how those beds can become unlocked is a priority for us. There’s absolutely not enough beds on mountain at Perisher when you look at the size of the resort. My view is Perisher should be and is the jewel in the crown of Australian skiing, and we just need to make sure that the facilities are balanced to provide the experience that people deserve.

SMM: Could you see someone investing tens of millions into hotels in Perisher Valley, do you think there is an investment return there? Do you think there is still appetite for someone to invest into a winter only season?

BT: I think if we look at the investment that’s occurred over the past couple of decades, whether it’s up here in the snowy region generally, or whether it’s down in Victorian resorts, I think there is an appetite for people to invest in the resorts, absolutely. Perisher at the moment is predominantly a winter destination, but you know there’s investment going into walking trails. I’m a ﬁrm believer that if we are able to create a village that people want to be in, that there’ll be some visitation that ﬂows in the summer months as well. I think there’s resorts, whether here or our (Vail Resorts) resorts in North America, that are certainly great examples of that.

SMM: Across the board everyone had 2022 sta ng issues, how did Perisher deal with sta ng numbers, were you short in areas in di erent departments?

BT: We were obviously laser focused on sta ng coming into the season, and not at all immune from the pressures everybody’s facing. We worked really hard to ensure that we were sta ed appropriately to get the lifts running and to open our essential services. But there’s no doubt there was some challenges around skilled sta such as chefs, and ski instructors. We certainly felt that we had sta ed our ski school to the right level. But the demand from lessons was really high this year. The real di erence that we saw right across our Australian resorts was that demand for private lessons. Perhaps that’s a factor of COVID, where people were not wanting to go out with others, particularly early in the season when omicron was still circulating. www.snowymagazine.com.au/newsperisher/belinda-trembath-interview

We were pleased with the sta ng levels that we went into season with, but we had to change up our product o ering. We’ve got some work to do improving our F&B o ering on mountain, some of that will come more easily with the availability of hopefully more chefs coming into next season. Also, we did have to change some opening hours of our F&B outlets, we weren’t able to get some of them open as frequently as we would have liked. That is something we are looking to improve upon.

SMM: Continuing on from the sta ng question, Belinda did elaborate on changes for 2023 to the children’s programs.

BT: We will be going back to full day children’s programs in 2023, obviously during COVID we pulled back the children’s program, to avoid having a large number of kids inside eating lunch all together, with their instructor. We’re certainly seeing our way to returning to full day programs next year, which I think will be a really welcome return to those programs for families.

Stay tuned to our website and four winter editions for more news on Perisher and the snow industry as a whole. To see previous interview 1 with Belinda, visit this web page.