Time for FIS Freeskiing
This past summer, during annual strategy meetings in Slovenia, the International Ski Federation (FIS) passed a proposal to sanction ski halfpipe and skiercross events. Even more surprising is that, in their infinite wisdom, the governing body decided to put both disciplines under the direction of the Freestyle division. This occurred despite the fact that participants in skiercross are largely drawn from the ranks of former alpine racers, and the fact that halfpipe skiers share standards for judging, as well as language, demographics, and psychographics, with their now-friendly snowboarding brethren (yes, the Vietnam-esque war is over, nobody won).
FIS sanctioning is a great thing. As an industry, we should support this decision. It gives resorts a chance to put on competition events that will draw crowds that rival those of European downhill races and major snowboarding events.
Out of the gate, let me establish three things:
1) Our industry should promote halfpipe skiing and skiercross for inclusion in the Olympics as soon as possible. The same applies to dual moguls, dual slalom and motocross. Curling, pairs dance figure skating, and NBA basketball should be eliminated—but let’s table those discussions for now.
2) Everybody involved in freeskiing—manufacturers, resorts, Freeze magazine, the pro athletes, the kids in the local terrain park—should support the FIS. We do not need a new sanctioning body. The FIS is the path to the Olympics, and we need to work with it, not against it, to see this goal through. As an industry, we need to realize that the creation of organizations to monitor the most minute details of what is already a small sport is ridiculous (see ISF and NASJA).
3) The path we take to the Olympics must allow the industry as a whole to benefit. Consider recent history. In the past year we saw a snowboarding medal sweep that proved to be one of the most memorable events at the most successful Winter Olympics of all time, and double-digit new-participant numbers for snowboarding for the eighth year in a row. All this happened at the same time that the International Snowboarding Federation (ISF), a long-time governing body, dissolved. Growth in snowboarding has not happened because of the FIS, but inclusion in the Olympics certainly brought the sport valuable visibility that will help in the future. And this happened because sensible heads prevailed post-Lillehammer and the relationship between snowboarding and the FIS is now solid. This should be our goal with freeskiing.
As an industry, we need to promote freeskiing organically, just as snowboarding grew. Hold grass roots events at your resorts. Tell Bill Marolt at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association that you have kids skiing in your halfpipe every day. Encourage the creation of a freeskiing element in your freestyle or snowboard teams. Identify the peer group at your resort and use them to help drive their friends to participate (a few free lift tickets in hand go a long way). And most of all, continue to develop safe and exciting terrain parks and halfpipes.
Recent developments in France, with the creation of the French Halfpipe Team, are not a model the U.S. should follow. The French have created a team (largely of young ex-mogul skiers, and excluding top freeskiers such as Candide Thovex, who refused to join), and hired coaches. Worst of all, they have established a pool system in which only contributing members (who pay what amounts to extortion) can “take advantage of team benefits.”
Let’s be clear on this: Without the Olympics, we don’t need a team. The financial state of the ski industry cannot support yet another organization, and there are many other steps that must be completed before we go forming teams.
In following the model of snowboarding, we must fight against a pool system, fight against FIS-dominated judging and terrain mandates, and most of all, lobby for and ensure a team selection process based on results in open-style competitions. With those pillars in place, freeskiing’s core values will be protected, ensuring the sport will enjoy greater awareness and participation for years to come.
The bottom line is this: Let’s get freeskiing competitions into the Olympics, and do it in a way that uses the lessons that we have learned from snowboarding. The discipline of freeskiing as a category in skiing has grown in participation and awareness through existing events like the X Games and the U.S. Freeskiing Open. Let’s build upon these successful events to develop a path to the Olympics and take overall participation in snowsports to a new level.
Let Us Help
By Kim Seevers, PSIA-Eastern Director of Education and Programs; Chair, PSIA National Alpine Education Committee; Member, PSIA National Educational Steering Committee
Michael Berry has just made the rounds of the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) fall education seminars, and it’s no surprise that the buzz continues to be conversion. NSAA has followed up the Model for Growth (2000) by providing area management with a “Blueprint for Growth,” culled from information generated by various consumer and professional panels.
A glance at panel feedback indicates that most first time guests come to us with similar expectations—they want to have fun, they want to be successful, they would like it to be more affordable and accessible, and they want to feel like they belong to the “club” and are part of the culture.
As we all know, the problem here is that traditionally we are only successful at meeting these expectations with 15 percent of the beginners who give our slopes a try. That is why we have the challenge put before us to convert 1 percent more of these first time guests each season for the next 15 years. If we combine this with a 6 percent increase in the number of trial skiers, RRC Associates’ statistics indicate that the ski industry will grow from 52.2 million visits (1999/00) to 67.5 million visits in 2015.
One of the key elements of the Blueprint for Growth is that management must view their learning center directors as partners in the effort. While that’s all well and good, let’s talk about where the rubber meets the road. If we revisit that list of expectations for first time visitors, instructor performance directly impacts three of the four issues: fun, success and fitting in to the culture. The Model for Growth, and subsequently the Blueprint, has been actively presented to area owners and managers, resort operators and snowsports school directors. From there, we seem to be hoping that the trickle down theory will take over and expect that the message will somehow funnel down to the people who actually need to make it happen: the instructors. Although instructors represent the lengthiest point of contact with our new guests, many have not been directly challenged to help make a difference.
So let’s set some targets. The Model for Growth encourages us all to help grow the number of skier visits by 15.3 million by 2015. On the outside, this figure is incomprehensible, and to an individual instructor considering his or her place in that effort, contribution might seem futile.
Try looking at it this way: Suppose the average instructor impacts around 200 beginning guests a season. According to RRC statistics, that instructor can expect to convert around 30 (15 percent) of those guests to core skiers. If the instructor is challenged to work extra hard to convert 1 percent more of that number, that’s two or three more new skiers per year.
Now there’s a number that we can get a handle on! For an individual instructor, the challenge to convert five to ten additional students per season to core skiers is a piece of cake. It seems infinitely doable. In the Eastern Division of PSIA, we have 215 schools. If 100 members of each school successfully convert two or three additional trial skiers to the core this season, that’s 43,000 to 64,000 new core skiers.
Achieving this goal will, in some cases, require a cultural change. The instructor’s focus shifts from teaching a great lesson to using each lesson as a vehicle for creating a new skier. But the cultural change shouldn’t stop in the ski/snowboard school. Management and learning center directors should challenge their charges via education, support and encouragement. Have contests, reward instructors for successful efforts, and most importantly, encourage them to share our goal for the future with their guests. And remember, growing the sport is everyone’s business.
Risky Business?
By Joy Spring, Leisure Trends
The article “Risky Business” in the September 2002 issue of SAM questioned the wisdom of offering discounted lift tickets as a means of building long-term profitability, and pointed out the need to evaluate the feasibility of discounted season passes from a financial perspective. That is certainly a valid argument. However, the benefits from a marketing perspective should also be addressed.
Season pass ownership has risen from five percent in 1995 to 20 percent last season, driven by discounted pricing. Skier days were the third best in history in one of the biggest snow drought years. It’s possible that there’s a connection between the high levels of discounted passes and resort visits. If so, then discounted passes may be the best marketing promotion the ski industry has ever done.
Last season is a clear indication that lack of snow is a condition, not a death sentence. Discounted season passholders fed the lift lines. In fact, it’s very likely that those passholders would not have been on the slopes if not for their passes.
What’s unlikely is that even one passholder stopped to think about the devaluation of the experience because of the low cost of the pass, a concern raised in the article. On the contrary, most skier and rider passholders Leisure Trends has surveyed over the past few years say they enjoy the passes, and cost is a significant reason for this. Here are a few typical comments:
- “I have enjoyed the pass for its great price. With a family of four it was getting pretty costly to take everyone skiing… we didn’t ski as much as we do now. Having the pass has been great—don’t give it up!!!”
- “The pass is great. If it weren’t for the pass we probably would do nordic skiing. What I like best is that we always are there when the mountain opens and ski for three to four hours and then go home, and I don’t feel I have to ski the whole day to ‘get my money’s worth’ out of a day ticket.”
- “Love having the pass and would be very disappointed if there was a big increase in price. Would like to be able to get a discount on food. We buy a lot of food at the mountain and would even buy more if we were able to get some sort of discount.”
- “The pass has given me the ability to ski more often. It’s nice to know you can go till it gets too crowded and go home. You make your own time for a reasonable price.”
The negative comments we’ve noted in these studies are more likely to focus on the “high” cost of the pass and the fact that the skier/rider was not able to use it as much as they anticipated. As one respondent put it, “It [the pass] was a waste of money especially since the snow sucked this year and there is no way to get my money back.” Others mention cost, but focus on the experience: “You have rude employees who care more about all of these rules and regulations than you do about anyone having fun.” These are the issues that are more likely to devalue the experience—not the low cost of the pass.
There’s no argument that increasing revenue per skier would be beneficial—but supply and demand dictates pricing, and we are nowhere near capacity except on Saturdays and holidays (days that justify the highest yield). So the argument can be made that increasing demand—something that discounted passes are successful at—should be the objective.
So the question remains: are discounted season passes a success? The criteria for success mentioned in the article states that they must bring resorts skiers and riders who would not have come otherwise. Last season’s skier-visit total was the third-highest on record. What can we attribute this count to, if not the passes?
The question now becomes, are these visits sustainable? The resorts I’ve talked to and worked with are pretty excited about their numbers. They are continuing their discount programs, and that, too, is a tell-tale indicator. We wouldn’t repeat marketing programs that don’t show signs of success. In fact, given this success, the question now is, how do we get the other 80 percent of our customer base to buy into the program?
Monster Business
By Martin White, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Vail Resorts
As a father, I often marvel at how much my children, ages five, six and ten, have learned in their short lives. And even more so of how much they have learned from oversized, brightly colored animals or creatures with cute names. As the senior vice president of marketing and sales for Vail Resorts, I can’t help but wonder why it has taken the snowsports industry so long to catch on.
No one can deny the Barney phenomenon, the success of Sesame Street, or the potential of the Snow Monsters. I believe Snow Monsters founder Jack Turner is onto something here. If a big purple dinosaur can make learning fun and teach an entire generation of children countless songs and games, who’s to say Snowball the Snow Tiger, Powder Pig, and Boarder Beaver can’t teach the same kids to love skiing and snowboarding?
That’s why Vail Resorts is launching Snow Monsters as a major initiative at all five of our winter resorts this season. I see this as Vail Resorts doing our part to support what is quickly becoming a national grassroots campaign designed to get kids out on the slopes. As the official mascots of the national ski and snowboard teams, and with more than 150 industry members already working with Snow Monsters, it won’t be long before we see this idea take off. It won’t happen overnight, but if we all stay committed, we can make a difference.
Young consumers respond well to merchandising—and Snow Monsters affords us new and proven merchandising opportunities. They are featured in two children’s films, coloring books, a CD/audiocassette narrated by Picabo Street, trading cards, plush toys, events, apparel and costumes. They even have their own website. It’s easy. Stock your daycare facilities with Snow Monster coloring books. Host special events featuring the life-size characters at your resort. Give away Snow Monster videos to ski and snowboard school participants. These children and their families will likely visit your resort again. They may become your customers for life.
The Snow Monsters make trying a new experience, learning new things, and the “scary” unknowns of a snowy mountain all seem exciting and adventurous. Respecting nature, camaraderie, safety and competition are presented and addressed responsibly and effectively. That’s more than can be said for many of the other popular icons of today.
I joined the snow sports industry just over two years ago after running marketing departments for two major airlines. The importance of making children happy and safe when traveling has always been an important focus of airline management. Perhaps that’s why one of the opportunities I recognize is the family tradition of skiing or boarding. A winter vacation is a huge opportunity to educate these kids about the joys of being on our mountains and I believe that the Snow Monsters represent the best way for them to take the experience home with them. The management team at Vail Resorts is hoping that the industry will step up to this important challenge and teach these young people how great this sport can be!
