The Hills Are Alive

School is out. Time for me to schedule as much family-fun adventure as I can fit into my short New England summer. In the past, we’d load up the car and head to the shore. But now, the mountains are calling. The explosive growth of summer activities and awesome events that ski areas now offer have many families thinking the same way.

A summer getaway in the mountains creates lasting memories, and offers the same thrilling experiences and intense bonding as a ski vacation. Aside from the weather, the biggest difference between summer and winter trips is the overwhelming number of options for things to do in summer, from zip tours and mountain bike parks to wakeboarding and alpine coasters. This variety makes my job easy (or more difficult, depending on your perspective) when it comes to picking what to do and where to go.

However, it makes it a little harder for resorts to compete for the time and money of families like mine. Convincing us to pre-book a package, or getting our attention when already in your region, requires different channels and messaging. See how others try and solve the summer marketing conundrum on page 44.

Earning that lucrative family visitation—and valuable online review—takes the right mix of activities, with something for the entire family, from the very young to the most “experienced.” Engaging staff members who add to my overall experience help, too. Your culinary offerings and dreamy summer settings should complement my time at your mountain. Plus, some of these activities and environments are new to families like mine, and that can be intimidating. To help us feel more comfortable, reassure us that you are up to date on safety standards and practices. A checklist of those exposures is on page 28.

These considerations, and more, are all part of running a profitable summer business. We will experience the full potential of our mountain environments with experts and fellow operators at our upcoming Summer Ops Camp at Killington, September 5-7. Join us as we play, discover, and profit. For more info, see page 38.

A Little Change Can Be A Good Thing

SAM has been in print for 55 years. Woohoo! A lot has changed since that first magazine came off the press. Our goal has always been to keep our magazine relevant and useful to longtime readers, as well as the next generation. To that end, we have made a couple of small but significant changes with this issue.

We moved our opinionated, sometimes snarky, and occasionally humorous “Blue Pages” to the front of the magazine, removed the blue color and old-school “newsletter” look, and combined it with what used to be “Industry-Report” to create a more timely mashup of news and opinion. The goal is give you a quick read before settling into our longer articles. We agonized for hours over a clever new name for this section, and finally landed on “News & Views” (page 14). I know. Brilliant, right?

Have a great summer. The staff of SAM will be out and about playing in your summer playgrounds. We hope to see some of you in our travels.


Olivia Rowan
Publisher
olivia@saminfo.com