On June 1, 60 area operators, travel agents, lodges and carrier representatives participated in a vacation marketplace staged by the Chicago Metropolitan Ski Council at the Regency Hyatt House near O’Hare Airport. The Chicago Council and its members are one of the most important generators of group travel in the ski business, organizing over 300 trips each year. Their travel fair could set a nationwide pattern. During the course of the Saturday event, 51 of the Council’s 62 members clubs comparison shopped, bargained, and in some cases signed contracts and presented deposits for their 1974-75 weekend and vacation trips.
For some of the areas and carriers, Chicago’s “Seminar ’74” was the third such interchange of the spring. On May 16, in San Francisco, and on May 18 in Los Angeles, Lido Travel, which handles Far West Ski Association trip arrangements from Los Angeles, and its San Francisco representatives. Approximately 140 clubs and 58 operators participated. Neither clubs nor exhibitors were charged. Previously, areas and lodges tried to book the clubs during the FWSA convention, but according to Lido’s Marianna Georgantas, “there was always so many other things going on that very little got accomplished. The May events were the first time separate travel fairs were organized and the results warrant their becoming an annual event, according to Ms. Georgantas.
Chicago’s Seminar ’74 was the successor to Seminar ’73 and, the Council executives already have decided, the predecessor Seminar ’75. The project was originated by Allen Adezio, an engineer who was the Council’s trip chairman. Despite members’ skepticism, the first event, held in a downtown Chicago hotel, drew 40 clubs and 40 exhibitors.
This year, Adezio began to organize the travel seminar in January. Each exhibitor was charged $130 for his display-sleeping room, plus breakfasts and lunches for two staffers. Club reps paid only $6 for lunch. To assure maximum turnout, the Council urged each exhibitor to send a letter to the Chicago clubs, inviting them to their exhibit. The council offered a prize for the best promotion letter, which was won by the Ski the High Sierras group. Component clubs ended up with promotion letters from 24 exhibitors. Counting clubs and exhibitors, 307 individuals attended.
The clubs were buying not just for 1974-75 but for the following year as well. Adezio attributes the success of the marketplace to the need for early commitments. He says, “We used to wait until the ski show in the Fall. That is too late. Everything is booked up.” Ted Meindl, of Gemini Travel, a major tour operator says, “We have to follow up with the clubs later, but we can’t afford not to be here when they are shopping. The Fall ski show is when we’ll sell individual travel; this is when we sell the clubs.”
Among the midwestern areas represented were Boyne Country, Schuss Mountain, Big Powderhorn, Majestic Hills, Mount Telemark, Pine Mountain, Highlands of Scotland, Thunder Country (Ontario) and the new Spirit Mountain near Duluth.
Marketing people came from more than 1,000 miles away. Sun Valley, Grand Targhee, Aspen, Snowmass, Copper Mountain, Keystone, Montana Snow Bowl, Vail, Big Sky and Steamboat were on hand.
European representation was sparse, including only Lufthansa and Group Travel, a tour operator which works with both the French and Rocky Mountain resorts.
For travel to the Rockies, most clubs were dealing with tour operators as well as directly with airlines, expressing considerable interest in the affinity-group and tour-basing fares for Denver and in charter flights for points beyond, like Salt Lake, Whistler, Boise, Reno.
