Has it not! And what we are seeing now is an exciting rush to high tech, using bar codes and scanners, magnetic stripes, integrated microchips, radio relays and laser beams. The technology is catching ticket cheats, delivering messages to skiers, accumulating mountains of database marketing data, automatically debiting customers, rewarding frequent skiers—and incidentally performing the functions of the traditional low-tech paper ticket.
How are these systems working? We focused on six new systems installed at six U.S. areas which installed new systems this past year and asked an executive at each to give a brief rundown for our readership—write a review. These systems range from a new, computer-based ticketing system installed at Red River, New Mexico, with no pretensions to access control, on through to a system that appears to be ticketing, marketing and accounting departments all rolled into one packet of electronic wizardry. Readers should also remember that five of the six systems described were previously untested in the field, and a lot of “debugging” was assumed.
There are other systems; we cannot cover them all here. We chose to give the readership a broad sampling. SAM’s editorial columns will be exploring these technologies further.
“Is this CIA day at Copper Mountain?”…“Hey, that’s cool! Can you tell me how many vertical feet I’ve skied today?”…“I feel like a head of lettuce!”
Ticket checkers at Copper Mountain Resort heard some unusual comments this season in reaction to the bar code-based lift access control system Copper Mountain installed. Although automated point-of-sale ticketing has not yet been implemented, the benefits we felt would be there from the automation would have the most immediate bottom-line impact.
Each lift ticket or season pass has a unique bar code printed on it. A database is used to define the parameters of each ticket type, such as “valid any one day,” or “valid after 12:30 pm,” etc. Each time a guest presents their ticket, the bar code is read by a hand-held scanner/radio terminal carried by each base area ticket checker. The scanner utilizes a form of laser light to “read” the bar code. Information gets from the scanner to the host computer and back again to the ticket checker—usually within two seconds.
There are several technologies available to implement lift access control, among them bar coding, magnetic stripe, proximity readers and “touch buttons.” Although each has its own advantages, Copper Mountain selected bar coding for several reasons: 1) With the use of the hand-held scanner, the ticket checker maintains a high level of one-on-one contact with the guest; 2) Turnstiles or cattle gates seemed too impersonal and did not mesh well with the friendly image of our resort; 3) Bar code technology is also the most cost-effective option available at this time, especially as its supporting hardware has improved significantly in the past several years.
We anticipated far more challenges from ambient light and weather conditions than we actually experienced. The chief limitation of bar code technology is that data cannot be written back on the ticket at the time of verification, and there is no visual evidence that the ticket was used.
Copper’s system was designed to enable us to accurately account for skier days, detect counterfeit and fraudulent ticket use, track skier flow and lift utilization and open up new ways to “sell” skiing. Although we have not developed these options, access control offers the possibility of “point” or “vertical foot” based lift ticket pricing and marketing once access control is in place at all lifts. (Only the base area lifts accessing the mountain had ticket checkers with scanners last winter, but plans call for all lifts to be scanned.)
A large percentage of Copper Mountain’s skier-day mix comes from undated lift tickets sold by offsite vendors. Prior to installation of this system, the ticket checkers validated tickets by punching out the month and day on a calendar printed on the ticket. Access control has helped us to reduce duplicate usage of these tickets and improve tracking of statistics. In the future we hope to also improve our cash flow from offsite vendors by monitoring usage of tickets consigned to them.
A myriad of reports and information are available from the system. A ticket history report shows upon demand which lifts were ridden, and the times of usage for any particular ticket. Marketing can use the program’s flexible reporting system to answer questions such as, “What terrain does our multi-day ticket user favor?”…“Is there a correlation between trail grooming and lift usage on a given day?”
A skier activity report instantaneously shows the number of skiers and mix of lift ticket types. Access control allows us to determine when or if a ticket is actually used, versus when it was sold. For the first time, breakage can be determined. In the future, this may lead to more accurate timing of lift revenue recognition.
Invalid tickets, such as hot season passes or stolen tickets, may be entered “real time” into the system, resulting in a 75 percent increase in the number of invalid tickets recovered compared to the previous season. We have had no recurrence of counterfeit lift tickets.
Regardless of the amount of planning and preparation, the conversion from manual to automated access control can be a hair-raising experience. After the switch, there is no going back without significant risk of revenue loss since the automated system does not leave any visual evidence of ticket validation.
Copper Mountain, Comptrol Systems, of Littleton, Colo., and TS-TK, of Broomfield, Colo., began joint development of the system in August, 1992. Installation, testing and training all began after the area had opened. Final conversion to automated access control did not take place until February 1, 1993. Needless to say, this was not optimal timing. Before and after the critical transition date, Copper Mountain experienced several technical challenges, including host computer software incompatibility, software bugs, hand-held radio battery failures and human errors leading to data loss.
Once the transition is made to access control it becomes “mission critical” to any resort. Hardware redundancy and system backup are essential. Any failure of access control results in significant exposure to the risk of ticket re-use.
Copper Mountain has taken the first major step toward automating our lift ticketing process. We have cleared the hurdles of implementing a major system, gaining the support of employees and introducing guests to a new method of checking tickets. The next step is to install an automated point-of-sale system which is integrated with the access control system.
- (28) Hand-held battery-operated scanner/radio terminal units: Opticon Charge Coupler Device (CCD) Scanner; Telxon radio terminal unit (640K MS DOS PC); ear piece, holster & harness.
- (1) Radio Transceiver Antenna: Telxon RT SAT 750.
- (1) Network Communication Controller: Telxon RF C-40.
- (1) Host Computer: 486 50Mhz Compaq Powerpro; 32 MB RAM; 550 MB Hard disk; 0/S2 v2.0 Extended Services v1.0.
Access Control Physical Configuration — Copper Mountain Resort: The information is sent via radio frequency (RF) from the hand-held unit to a radio transceiver antenna/controller which relays the information to a host computer. The host computer verifies the validity of the ticket, updates the database and sends a response back to the hand-held unit, usually within two seconds. The ticket checker receives an audible valid or invalid signal from the hand-held unit. Invalid signals are accompanied by a message on the display of the unit. This cycle flags previously used or invalid tickets and prevents the guest from accessing the lifts.
