Though bike park visitation didn’t see much growth this year, there were some other ways the bike park flourished, and accommodation numbers still rose.
“Last year had been our strongest season in the bike park to date,” Christina Antoniak, director of communications for Sun Peaks Resort LLP (SPR) said. “Now this year is, but only surpassed last year by a smidge.”
Similar to the bike park, golf rounds were flat year-over-year, but because of what Antoniak thinks is due to additional tour traffic in August following the Jasper wildfires, hiking visits this summer saw a 10 per cent growth.
Season pass visits to the bike park were down 15 per cent from last year however, Antoniak said bike park day ticket sales were slightly up, leading to a virtually flat overall trend in bike park visits.
Trail crew and conditions
With good weather and trail conditions, the trail crew was able to bring up the quality of the trails in Sun Peaks.
“We had a little bit of snow even in June, and that just sets the stage for a really solid foundation in the bike park when we have that wet spring,” she said, explaining that trail conditions were nice and tacky at opening.
Coming from Shawn Melnechuk, bike park coordinator, Antoniak reiterated the dedication of this summer’s hard working trail crew.
The crew did a rebuild on the Progression Park, with some higher level sections put in with larger features and jumps, built a ladder bridge on Sweet One, refurbished a 100 foot long log ride and added a blue tech trail on Sundance called Melhouse as a nod to Melnechuk.
“Next year, they’re really excited about a few expansions that are coming into the trail network,” she said. “So we’ll see a little bit of new trail development for next summer.”
For bikers, hikers and other visitors, the largely consistent and smoke-free weather contributed to a positive experience.
Guests praised the well-maintained trail network, huge variety of trails, and bike-related events for kids, Antoniak said upon looking over guest reviews.
“Among our guests who also ride elsewhere, we’re viewed as one of the top bike parks in B.C.,” she said.
Bike park and lift visitation
Focusing on the highest markets in terms of overall lift visitation, 70 per cent of lift users were from B.C. with 25 per cent specifically from Kamloops, 10 per cent were from Alberta and 3.5 per cent from Washington State.
Regarding the relatively flat number in mountain biking visits this number, Antoniak said there are several factors that could have contributed to the failure to meet SPR’s more optimistic projections for the season.
Inflation, particularly on travel expenses, and perceived wildfire impacts may have affected tourism travel numbers. There being less smoke in the Sun Peaks area helped with localized visits, however.
A large reason she pointed to for both a plateau in bike park visits and retail sales at Elevation Bike, Ski & Board is the saturation in the mountain biking market that resulted from the massive amount of people during and post-pandemic getting into mountain biking for something to do while social distancing.
“Our focus over the next few months will be evaluating our marketing and communications strategy in this niche sector and looking for ways to reach new potential guests and entice returning visitors next summer.”
Retail and other revenue
Currently, retail sales have been slow on everything from equipment to bikes to jerseys and shorts as well.
Antoniak can only speak to Elevation as an SPR-run store, but said in talking to bike shops in other areas such as Kamloops or the lower mainland the story everywhere is that retail is slow and was down this summer.
“It’s anyone’s best guess what’s going to happen in terms of that retail side shifting,” she said. “Is it going to shift next year a bit? Is it going to take a few years? No one really knows what that’s going to look like.”
Though visitation numbers to the sports school were relatively flat, there was a 40 per cent increase in private lesson program revenue and a higher retention rate of people coming back for lessons than they’ve ever seen.
“The sports school had their best June on record in terms of revenue, almost their best July and their best August,” Antoniak said, based on a conversation with Ian Logan, Sun Peaks sports school director.
“Another key part of that is we had 100 per cent retention in our instructors this summer,” she said. “So all 16 instructors in the bike park were returning instructors, so they’re highly knowledgeable.”
Beginner lessons were the most popular this year. For brand new bikers, the Never Ever Days that were new this summer garnered enough interest to sell out each time.
Events and village visitation
Occupancy numbers in both hotel and vacation rentals increased year over year for each month except June, when vacation rentals were down, Naomi Kerchinsky, executive director for Tourism Sun Peaks said.
In terms of bike visitation and lift utilization, Antoniak said the weekends where mountain bike events were taking place saw the highest numbers of the summer.
August was the strongest month of the summer this year for accommodation numbers, Kerchinsky said, with September having the highest year-over-year growth.
These months followed the Jasper wildfires, which caused bus and rail guests who were originally supposed to be routed through Jasper to come to Sun Peaks instead, and were also popular months in terms of bike events.
During August, Sun Peaks saw several bike events including the Canadian Downhill MTB Championships, Peaks Pedal Fest and the Summer Stoke Series session two. In September, the Canadian Enduro Championships and Stoke Series session three continued to activate the bike park.
“We know those events are bringing people into the resort,” Antoniak said. “They’re bringing people who are participating. They’re bringing friends and family.”
The DH Nationals and Enduro Championships will both be returning next summer, and events like Peaks Pedal Fest will continue to grow.
With the Summer Stoke Series developed by bike park supervisor Rick Boles, $1,500 was raised for the Sun Peaks Skate Park Foundation and Recreational Trail Association (SPRTA).
Three locals days took place, which was another new fundraising initiative that raised $7,525 for Kamloops Bike Riding Association (KBRA), the Kamloops Performance Cycling Centre (KPCC) and SPRTA.
Both Antoniak and Kerchinsky have heard anecdotally that businesses in the village had a better summer than the last, especially during the DH Nationals weekend.
What did you think of this story?
Sun Peaks Independent News is your essential source for community news in Sun Peaks. Your feedback after we publish a story helps ensure we're always improving our reporting to better serve you.
