“Since we put our conference center in 12 years ago, summer was on a fast track for us with increases in business every year up until 9/11,” said Meg O’Leary, marketing director at Big Sky, Mont., which does 25 percent of its business in the summer, almost all of it meetings and conferences. “Conferences have been very slow to come back.”
At the Vail Valley Chamber and Tourism Bureau, which handles about 10 percent of bookings in the Vail Valley and offers a snapshot of business in the region, reservations are behind last summer’s mediocre results. “Meetings and conferences are picking up a little bit,” said Ian Anderson, communications director. “We’re starting to get some leads for meetings in upcoming years that we’re trying to chase down.”
Even the rubber tire meeting business remains soft this summer. “The economy has really affected our meetings and conference business,” said Jane Eshbaugh, marketing director at Holiday Valley, N.Y. “Companies have definitely cut back.”
Companies that are still meeting, say ski area marketers, are booking shorter stays, sending fewer participants, flying in fewer people and waiting longer to make their reservations. “A lot of our conference business has a three to eight week lead time,” said Stacey Lopes, communications director at Waterville Valley, N.H. “In the past it would have been three to six months. Companies are waiting to see where they’re going and negotiating a lot harder on price.”
With air travel still down, ski areas are concentrating more on their regional markets. “We’ve always been a national draw,” said O’Leary at Big Sky. “But we’re really focusing on local regionals and pricing very aggressively. We’re even taking state rate groups—government employees who are reimbursed per diem. These are groups we would not have aggressively marketed to in the past.”
One bright spot on the summer meeting front has been associations and educational groups. “The associations and educational groups are still getting together for conferences and planning and education purposes,” said Barry Godwin, marketing director at Shanty Creek, Mich., where summer accounts for about 50 percent of the resort’s bottom line.
Entertainment and Recreation
Many ski areas have carved out a very defined summer niche. Water parks, for example. Despite four other water parks within a couple of hours’ drive, Camelback’s Camelbeach water park attracts about 300,000 visitors every summer, compared to 350,000 skiers in the winter.
Other areas with well-defined niches are seeing their summer business swell. Lost Valley in Auburn, Me., with just 240 vertical feet, has to close the mountain by March 15 in order to accommodate its summer banquet season. “They do a huge banquet business,” said Greg Sweetser, executive director of Ski Maine. “They’re having an awesome summer.”
Spirit Mt., Minn. also has a large summer banquet niche, and two years ago added paint ball to the mix. “We’ve been putting a lot of focus on creating summer revenue the last couple of years,” said Briana Schaub, marketing director. “Paint ball has been a huge hit. We see a lot of potential with that for future growth on the revenue side.”
Whistler/Blackcomb, one of two areas in North America offering summer glacier sliding, is taking another one of its summer niches—mountain biking—to similar heights. “We’ve increased the mountain bike park tremendously this summer and are getting international awareness for it,” said Stuart Rempel, vice president for marketing. “Year-to-date, bike visits are already up significantly. It’s a great piece of business for us.”
Golf, another popular ski area summer activity, continues to expand at resorts across the country, although there is some indication that its popularity may be waning. At Shanty Creek, with its four courses, golf is down. “Our golf rounds continue to be a challenge,” said Godwin. “Whether there’s more courses or people are not playing as much, play throughout the golf industry is pretty static.”
Still, areas remain optimistic about this summer. “Most people still do want to go on vacation,” Holiday Valley’s Eshbaugh said. “They want to go someplace where they feel comfortable, someplace nice. Ski areas fit the bill pretty well.”
