Article Excerpt:
TWST: Can we start with an overview of Intrawest and how you see the company today?Mr. Currie: We describe ourselves as the leading developer and operator of village-centered resorts in North America. That came from our history. starting with Blackcomb Mountain at Whistler where simultaneously we acquired and improved the facilities on the mountain for skiing and while also developing the village at the base of the mountain. In doing so, we built and sold condos that were put back into the rental pool, which means there are beds for the skiers to stay in, and it evolves into a destination resort. At the same time in the villages, in addition to the condos, we developed retail space for a broad variety of shops and restaurants and bars, etc., that really took what, at one point, was just a regional ski hill into a destination resort. We transported that business model across North America. So today we have 10 ski resorts, and we've gone beyond that to do a similar approach ' not just ski resorts but also warm-weather destinations such as Sandestin, our resort in Florida, where it's more golf and beach oriented. But the same business model applies where we build a vibrant village at the core of the village at the resort and sell condos to create the bed base to bring tourists. So where we are today and looking forward, of course, is we are continuing on that as the core of our business model. More and more locations and opportunities are being presented, but also what that has done for us is it has given us a very large customer base of the people who ski at our resorts and buy our condos, which are typically fairly affluent baby boomers. So we are looking at ways of expanding our product offerings to that same clientele. As a result, we've expanded into other areas of leisure and travel.
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