We’re up … but have we surfaced?

T.O.T. revenues up significantly over last year … too bad last year sucked.

As of this week, Mammoth’s Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) numbers reflect a surprising upward trend from last winter, with TOT collection from June 2014 to January 2015 coming in $401,645 ahead of budget, and $918,023 above last year’s TOT for the same time period.

The Town has collected $7,183,829 in TOT thus far out of a total $11.6 million budget.

In a press release last week, Mammoth Lakes Tourism (MLT) commented on the growth in TOT, attributing it both to fortuitously timed snow, “as well as efforts made by MLT to get the word out in December.”

MLT Executive Director John Urdi explained to The Sheet that “When we saw all of the storms coming in [in December], we went out hard with not only the existing budget, but an additional $126,000.”

That $126,000 came from the Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID), supplementing another $266,565 from Measure A and TBID already budgeted for December.

Urdi said that MLT, like MMSA, shifted its marketing approach from last year. “We weren’t overpromising, and people were having a great experience,” he said; “people were really happy.”

MLT’s investment “Let us ride the December momentum into late January,” he said.

Another factor affecting Mammoth’s success this winter was the lack of snow at other resorts, particularly in Tahoe. “We’re the best of the worst right now,” Urdi said. “I think even though it’s a challenging year, we’re fortunate to have what we have.”

Urdi did acknowledge that “right now we’re running out of gas again,” although another storm hovers on the horizon next week. He said he believed TOT collected for February will be about equal to the budgeted $1.49 million,