Those low European fares
If the U.S. Government one day were to make it cheaper for people to deliver a letter to Europe than to send the same envelope from New York to Colorado, it wouldn’t be surprising to find a certain amount of public resentment as a result, particularly among Americans whose business and employment depended on the mail.
Somewhat astonishingly, this is precisely the state of affairs that has arisen with respect to the airlines and the U.S. ski resort industry. In opting for continually lower trans-Atlantic fares, the American carriers are moving quickly toward a day when individual East Coast-Europe fares will be lower than those to Denver or Salt Lake City, half the distance away. The impact on the Rocky Mountain ski resorts is clear enough. It even extends to New England resorts. All are competing with the European Alpine resorts for the American skier’s vacation dollar. The more these dollars are spent abroad and the less that is spent domestically, the greater is the blow to stateside employment and the greater is the damage done to America’s deteriorating balance of payments.
So far, U.S. ski resorts have tended to take the lowering of European air fares and charters lying down. Perhaps the time has come to start to do some shouting . . . and acting.
A new face at SAM
You may have noticed a new name on the masthead this month—Richard Needham (above), the new Editor of SKI AREA MANAGEMENT. Formerly with American Home Magazine and Saturday Review, Dick is a skier with some strong ideas on the directions a publication serving our industry should take:
“The business of communication has to be a two-way street, with plenty of give and take between ourselves and the man we’re talking to. We want him to tell us about himself, about his area, about his operational needs.
“With his heavy seasonal demands, the area man has little time to keep abreast of happenings elsewhere in the industry. That’s our job—to sift, report and interpret the latest in the field of ski area management, to make his tasks a little easier and, hopefully, his operation more profitable. The only way we know that we’re doing our job effectively, that we’re keying on areas of greatest concern, is through hearing from our readers. Let’s start there.”
