“Don’t ever say I’m bullish,” said Nick Badami, chairman of the board of Alpine Meadows, Calif. “We threw out the bullish budget a long time ago.” If Badami’s not bullish after a record season at his other ski area, Park City, Utah, and a near record at Alpine Meadows, is there any hope for the U.S. ski industry?
Bullish may not be the word to describe the mood as ski area operators approach another ski season. But neither is pessimistic, discouraged or any of the other doomsday words being thrown around. In truth, the operative word at most ski areas, big and small around the country, seems to be “innovative” and “forget about the other guy, do what works for you.”
“The ski industry as a whole has projected an image of skiing as being safe and a family sport,” complained Felix Kagi, president of Paoli Peak, Ind. “We’ve taken the action and the excitement out of skiing. That’s why snowboarding is doing so well — it’s still seen as exciting.”
Kagi’s rather unorthodox response — and he admits he is one small operator taking one small step — is to put skiers back in the air again and to remove the skier’s responsibility code from Paoli Peak brochures and literature this winter. “Obviously we’ll post the code at the area, but not in our literature,” Kagi said. “We want to project skiing as fun again with action and excitement.”
Around the country ski area operators are looking for anything that works. At Sun Valley, it’s a season pass for people who don’t want to run gates every day but do want racing tips. “It’s in between a race clinic and a lesson,” explained Rainer Kolb, director of recreation and head of the ski school at Sun Valley. “It’s a three-hour coaching clinic every morning, Monday through Friday, for roughly 70 days. We started it last year because the adult racing program was so successful we didn’t have enough room for everyone who wanted to get in. Besides not everybody wants to run gates every day.”
With no advertising, no fanfare and a late start, the new adult coaching clinic took off — about the only thing that did take off last winter at the snow-starved resort. With $6 million of new snowmaking equipment this winter and lots of advance advertising planned, Kolb expects the new racing program to at least double in size. “Last season was a difficult one, but this program was very successful. It was really kind of amazing, all things considered,” he said.
That’s not the only example of ski area operators’ attempts to find something to get excited about. Even in snow-starved, recession-hurt Massachusetts, operators are positive, but are not sure why.
“We’ve been chuckling here, actually astounded is a better word for it,” said Alan Fletcher, general manager of Nashoba Valley. “We’ve had more inquiries about rates and lessons — mostly ski lessons — this summer than ever before. Three or four people in a row will call up and want to know specific information about a program, usually lessons. It’s crazy. After last winter, which was terrible in this part of the country weather-wise, you’d think it would be just the opposite, that people would slow down. Instead they want to sign up. We can’t understand it. Maybe somebody else is advertising; we sure aren’t.”
Fletcher plans to hold off advertising until later than ever this year. “We’re going to go with more instantaneous advertising — the day before we want the people,” he said. “We had ads that went off last year that in 20/20 hindsight, I wish hadn’t gone off.”
Wachusett, Mass., meanwhile, won’t do any advertising without some “rollover” dollars. “We have a $200,000 ad budget we think we can stretch quite considerably with a lot of radio promos,” said David Crowley, vice president of marketing. “But we won’t run them unless the radio station brings something to the table.”
Despite New England’s poor economy and an 18 percent decrease in business last winter, the mood at Wachusett is upbeat. Innovation and going with your strength are the keys. Last winter the area expanded the adult group ski programs, which can include lifts, lessons and rentals, from six weeks to nine weeks and generated 40,000 skier visits out of it — an increase of 20 percent from a year ago. “The weather is our number one concern,” Crowley said. “We had 27 days of rain here and still came out OK. The economy always takes a backseat to the weather.”
Terry Lofsvold, president of Bogus Basin, Id., agreed, noting that the recreation industry was born during the Great Depression. “I think recreation becomes even more important during stressful times,” Lofsvold said. “People may change their habits and what they do for leisure time, but that time is still very important to them.”
The summer operation in Park City, Utah, seems to back up this assessment.
“We’ve found that people are continuing to spend on recreation, but are cutting back on other things,” said Badami. “So our summer business is up 15 percent at Park City, but people in town are running about even. This tells me that people are spending more on recreation, but cutting back on food, stores and other things.”
Given this sentiment, there are several theories making their way around the country on prices — whether to raise them, lower them or spread them around. Most areas are raising them with inflation.
Ted Motschman, president and general manager at Mt. LaCrosse, Wisc., is raising prices “modestly and with trepidation.” He’s also trying to figure out “more ways to sell people things.”
“We’re trying not to do everything with the lift ticket alone,” Motschman said. “There aren’t too many avenues open to us, but we’re trying to take some of the pressure off the lift ticket because it’s so visible and so offensive to skiers. No one ever remembers what they paid for a hamburger, but they do remember what they paid for a lift ticket.”
Mt. Bachelor, Ore., is trying out a different concept in pricing — skiing by the “point.” This summer the area purchased a Skidata ticketing system, which permits lifts to be assigned point values and skiers to purchase tickets by the “point.” As a skier passes through the lift line, he inserts his ticket into a computer that automatically clicks off the correct number of points for that lift. Skiers can buy an all-day pass or as many points as they want. “It’s a flex ticket,” said Dan Rutherford, vice president of mountain operations. “It gives our skiers more flexibility in where and how much they ski.” Season pass holders will wear a wristwatch that emits radio waves read by the computer. “The system will also provide us a better data base for our marketing efforts,” Rutherford said. “We’ll be able to make more accurate counts on skier days and where skiers are coming from.”
Overall it’s hard to put any one word on the mood of ski area operators. Ted Motschman, coming off one of his best seasons ever, was all set to begin a summer expansion program until he went to the national USIA convention. “I think some of this talk about recession, war, weather, terrible year is infectious,” he said. “I think I was more positive before I went to the national convention. Now I’m starting to second guess myself. I don’t want to read too much into last season.”
And maybe that’s the last word. Whether the season was good, bad or ugly for ski areas, nobody wanted to read too much into it.
