One in every eight skiers belongs to a ski club, according to all the Skier Opinion Surveys conducted since 1988. Estimates made by The National Ski Club Newsletter indicate that there are probably 3,000 ski clubs in the United States with more than 1,500,000 members. (The Newsletter publishes an annual list of ski clubs with 2,300 currently on it and about 500 new ones added each year.)
Many ski club members center their social lives around the sport of skiing and their ski club, making them an ideal niche market for the ski industry. Two-thirds of those members are single, and most of the other one-third met their spouses in “the club.” Ski clubs are where the fraternity and sorority kids go when they grow up and get divorced — and these people constitute 12 percent of the skier market.
Despite the seemingly compact nature of this market segment, it has historically been a difficult one to target. The clubs usually receive mail at the home addresses of officers who are elected annually in varying months. This makes mail contact difficult to accomplish with accuracy.
About 1,000 clubs send over 5,000 representatives to the spring ski shows and the shows work very well for ski areas that are targeting ski clubs located near resorts. But ski clubs usually select next year’s destination trips from February through April, well before attending the spring ski shows.
For either local or destination trips, targeting ski clubs is a matter of insuring that you are talking to the right people and in a timely manner. This must be done by ascertaining who then contacting the new officer corps shortly after the election. In other words, to stay on top of the market; communicating with last year’s officers is a waste of time.
Once the key people are identified, ski areas can develop programs for that market segment and communicate details of the programs to the people in charge. The programs might involve races, parties or just skiing, but there are some standard items that attract ski clubs.
Ski club apres ski facilities. Reserve space for club members to get together after skiing in a tent, conference area or a section of a slope-side bar. Ski club members are usually single and look forward to meeting like-minded people. Bar-game competitions between clubs and other activities geared to clubs heighten the enjoyment and add to apres-ski business.
Host a special week for clubs. This can be for college, business or social ski clubs. While about 20 ski-club councils sponsor such weeks, relatively few clubs belong to the councils and there is a growing demand for this activity. To date, only Vail has sponsored such a week for ski clubs.
Let the club know that you appreciate them. I can remember a Texas Ski Week with 800 skiers in attendance where almost every shop in town had a sign in its window saying “Welcome Texas Skiers,” and I can say that the members felt really appreciated — but that was in Europe six years ago. North American resorts rarely even include a council ski week on their events calendar, but such activities should be on calendars and councils and clubs should get copies. Going a step further, council and club ski weeks can be featured in ski area newsletters and other publications. If it is a really large or unusual ski week, send the details and photos to The National Ski Club Newsletter.
Promote learn-to-ski programs through ski clubs. Ski clubs need new members each year in order to grow or even to sustain current membership levels. This is because two-thirds of ski club members are single and once they find a spouse, they will usually hang around for a year or two until their priorities change with the arrival of children. Many clubs have found that learn-to-ski programs are excellent tools for membership recruitment. This offers ski resorts not only a great opportunity to obtain the new skiers, but a chance to fill early-season periods by promoting low-cost learn-to-ski programs. With such programs, the industry gets new skiers, the clubs get new members and the resorts get increased skier days and additional revenue.
