“We didn’t plan any special events for safety week, mainly because we didn’t have time,” said Sally Johnstone, director of sales and marketing at Jiminy Peak, Mass., where revenues are running 70 percent ahead of last year and employees are stretched to the max. “But we’re so safety conscious anyway—we’re always promoting safety at the area.”
“Our mentality is that every week is safety week,” echoed Kirt Zimmer, PR manager at Stowe Mountain Resort, Vt.
Last year, in response to complaints about rude and potentially dangerous behavior among some guests, Stowe began a mountain-wide Triple A—Attitude, Awareness and Accountability—campaign to promote safety and civility. The Triple A message is incorporated into everything the area does, from its employee training, to ski lessons, signage, brochures, Website, even workshops and joint promotions with local businesses. “We’re trying to create a vibe, a culture that supports civility,” Zimmer said.
Last year Okemo, Vt., began a safety ambassador program that stations 15 volunteers at busy intersections and high-traffic trails. The ambassadors, dressed in bright red jackets with blue crosses and “Safety Counts” emblazoned across them, gently, and sometimes not so gently, enforce the area’s new WEAR—Warning, Education, Assist and Removal—program.
“We keep track of how often we do each of the four things on a daily basis,” said Pam Cruickshank, Okemo’s marketing director. “A lot of our guest surveys are showing that people notice the program and appreciate it and that fewer people are skiing out of control.”
Instead of a poster contest, Okemo had kids in its children’s programs act out the different points of the responsibility code. They also invited two local doctors to talk to the children about safety and injuries and had them properly dress a stuffed animal for the slopes. In addition, Okemo sponsored helmet demos, put the responsibility code on its snow reports, Web page and other materials, and highlighted the code in its employee staff meetings.
While safety may always have been a year-round effort at ski areas, the one-week promotion has helped many of them re-think addressing the issue.
“We planned many activities that week to engage both our guests and our employees around safety issues,” said Kristen Yantis, communications manager at Vail, Colo.
Internally, Vail offered $500 to the department that best communicated the safety message to guests. (Entries ranged from posters to videos to ice sculptures.) For guests, the area conducted free binding checks, snowboard safety strap giveaways, ski patrol open houses and free hot chocolate, fitness clinics (helping reduce injuries by keeping guests in shape), poster contests, signs, buttons and even a “Who wants to be a millionaire” safety gameshow spoof. “You couldn’t miss that it was safety week at Vail,” Yantis said.
Crystal Mountain, Mich. celebrated safety week by hosting a special event each day. Activities included helmet demos during adult-league race night, on-site radio broadcasts and $1.67 (the radio station’s broadcast frequency) lift tickets, the ever-popular children’s poster contest and free hot chocolate and NASTAR runs for anyone who could recite one of the tenets of the responsibility code.
“It was hilarious seeing what some of the kids came up with and their interpretations of safety,” said Joan O’Neill, director of marketing. “I think people were very aware that something was going on around safety that week.”
“They couldn’t help but be aware,” said Gretchen Anderson, spokeswoman at Bogus Basin, Idaho. “We had signs all over the place and got a lot of buzz in the media. We speak to 18 radio stations every morning and every day we were talking about safety. We had contests on the radio, it was on our home page, on everything we do.”
Instead of a poster contest, Bogus Basin ran a safety-slogan contest. “We had nearly 200 entries for a week-long contest,” Anderson said. “Some people even included graphics.”
Wintergreen, Va., produced a 30-second public service announcement safety video and sent it to 57 television stations in the greater Washington, D.C., area.
Crested Butte, Colo., invited the local school system to participate in a poster contest. It also held helmet demos and put up huge signs and banners everywhere. “Obviously, we try every day of the season to promote safety,” said Carolyn Bird, communications manager. “We have more small signage around than ever before.”
Despite the emphasis on safety, there is no such thing as too much reinforcement. At Jiminy Peak, for example, safety messages, including speed zones, safety patrols, assemblies in local schools, incorporating safety and the responsibility code into its ski lessons, trail maps, snow reports and signs around the resort are constant. Yet, the area received an email from a woman complaining about the behavior of some other guests.
“There ought to be rules,” the woman wrote. “I’ve been skiing for 20 years and there ought to be some rules about how to behave on the slopes.”
“How did we miss this person?” Johnstone asked. “It makes you wonder if there’s another way to communicate the message to people.”
