Although ski school revenues at most ski areas appear to be keeping pace with revenue figures in other departments, the “health” in this particular profit center might be deceptive. In fact, the situation may be deteriorating. While entry and novice level lessons are on the increase, many schools are seeing a steady decline in class lessons at the intermediate and advanced levels.
What’s more, resorts that track repeat business in ski school are finding dismal conclusions. Surveys, formal and otherwise, indicate that students have a very positive experience in their introductory lesson, but relatively few return for a second day. Those students who do try an upper level class lesson tend not to return. (It should be noted this is not the case in private lessons, where a guest, apparently satisfied with a given instructor, is likely to repeat several times.)
The question, of course, is why? Is it economic, public-perception, marketing or are ski schools simply doing a poor job of training staffs to administer advanced classes and teach already-good skiers to be better? The answer, in all likelihood, is all of the above.
Economics
A significant number of first-time skiers — but, unfortunately, by no means the majority — are likely to enroll in ski school for an introductory lesson. In some instances this initial experience is free. At the very least, the student may be lured to ski school by a discount package. Typically, the cost of such a program looks something like this:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Full-day lesson including lifts | $25.00 |
| Rentals (skis, boots and poles) | 15.00 |
| Total cost | $40.00 |
On Day Two, and forever after, assuming that he continues, the student experiences sticker shock. He must buy a lift ticket, because it’s no longer built into the lesson, and he’s looking at a tab that’s nearly twice the introductory deal:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Full-day lift ticket | $35.00 |
| Half-day class lesson | 22.00 |
| Rentals (skis, boots and poles) | 15.00 |
| Total cost | $72.00 |
Not to mention lunch, beer, transportation and lodging. It’s not tough to figure out which expense the guest will decide to cut. “To heck with lessons,” says he. “My buddy can teach me.”
Public Perceptions
People are no longer convinced they need ski school. What was once a great tradition, the Learn-to-Ski Week, is becoming a rarity as skiers spend fewer days at resorts. Dollars aside, they perceive they cannot afford to invest all or even a part of a vacation day in class.
Equipment for beginners is far from perfect, but compared to what we had to work with years ago, modern skis, bindings and boots make learning much easier. Shorter, more flexible skis, better-fitting (and performing) boots permit many people to learn on their own. Everyone, the taught and the self-taught, progresses faster. It’s not unreasonable to expect to be skiing green runs after just one day’s experience. Grooming brings a consistency and uniformity to all but the steepest and narrowest ski runs. Snow conditions are no longer a serious challenge. Skiers, even at the lowest level, are lulled into a false sense of security by a carpet-like surface on what appears to be a smooth freeway. They can ski faster, with less fear and for semblance of control.
Many skiers lack motivation. Occasional skiers have sold themselves on the belief that they will never get much better anyway. So why bother? Just have fun.
There’s also a compelling argument to be made that ski schools do too good a job at the entry level. After an all-day session, most A-Class graduates can control their speed, stop and turn in both directions. They come away from ski school believing they “know how to ski,” and are therefore ready to explore the mountain with their friends. Clearly the ski school has failed to sell them on the fact that more instruction will make skiing more fun, more exciting and safer.
Marketing and Administration
Unless it’s run as an independent concession, it’s unusual for a ski school to have its own marketing budget. Ski school is marketed as an adjunct to the rest of the resort — an amenity that’s expected, though rarely sold very hard. There have been notable exceptions in which resorts have built entire marketing programs around the ski school’s ability to “accelerate” people along the learning curve, but many large resorts do not even go to the expense of producing a separate ski school brochure.
As a result, ski teachers tend to sell themselves as individuals, rather than as a group of teachers constituting a “school.” Bad for espirit de corps of course, but more to the point, it discourages instructors from selling advanced classes and encourages them to sell privates for themselves where they get a bigger piece of the action.
In any case, advanced class lessons tend to be somewhat canned and uninspired. They’re often taught by relatively inexperienced people who are trying to gain enough teaching background to make it through a certification exam. (The really good teachers are already certified, typically, and are filling their days with private lesson business they are generating for themselves.)
Catch-22
As a PSIA examiner for many years, I’ve seen that beyond the beginner level, teaching knowledge becomes increasingly vague, obviously a result of having far less experience with intermediate students. Confronted with an advanced-lesson problem, or worse, an expert teaching situation which relates to a specific terrain feature or snow condition, certification candidates usually reveal a lack of knowledge by offering one or two fairly standard progression lines as solutions.
Because they lack credentials and confidence, those who teach intermediate and advanced classes, tend to use time and terrain unimaginatively. In many cases they don’t yet know how to see the lay of the land in a creative way that will enhance teaching.
In my opinion, upper level classes, usually lasting an hour and a half to two hours, are too short to benefit students. What’s more, because they must return the class to its starting point at a prescribed time — in order to meet the next class — instructors dare not explore too far, venture to lifts other than the ones they know or deviate from a lesson plan they know will fit a particular time frame. They stay on “safe” terrain, lecture too much and ski too little. This paranoia is exacerbated by constant fear of liability exposure — to the resort and, possibly, to the instructor himself. In many ski schools, certain runs and terrain features are officially deemed “OK” for particular classes, while other sections are classified as “Verboten.” It goes without saying, this takes a whole lot of fun and learning potential out of any advanced lesson.
Then there are the problems of splits and class sizing. As a manager, a ski school director must be concerned about teacher-student ratios. To make ratios look more favorable he is constantly encouraging his supervisors to hit predetermined targets, that is: don’t create classes that are too small to be profitable.
In so doing, at upper levels where raw student numbers are small to begin with, a class may become an awkward mixture of people with slightly different abilities and/or problems. If the class split reveals three students who can’t quite make a parallel turn, for instance, and three who barely can, all six people are apt to be thrown into one class — so one instructor is paid rather than two. Customers recognize this and they don’t like it. Unless the instructor does an outstanding job of teaching this nonhomogeneous group, those students are unlikely to return.
Possible Solutions
If the class lesson is to be a profit-generating service, resort operators and ski school directors must become more flexible, more price conscious and more aware of the quality of instruction being offered beyond the novice stages. Here are some options to consider:
- Bridge packages that offer the second and even third lesson with a lift ticket, at a discount, would mean less of a hit to the new skier trying to make a rapid entry into the sport. More attractive multi-day pricing would reinforce his desire to improve.
The first day could be charged at $40, and the next two days, including lessons, lift ticket and rentals, at $55, making the three day all-inclusive introductory plan a package for $150. If the new skier is enticed to study for three days and the instruction was such that he truly does reach a reasonable level of competency, and has a great time doing so, the hook for skiing generally, and the specific resort, would truly be set.
- Start-any-time programs, lasting two or three days, would attract a clientele that is no longer locked into Saturday-to-Saturday vacations or even Monday-to-Friday ski weeks. Students should be allowed to begin any day of the week (with obvious exceptions during holiday periods). Though it will require some adjustment on the part of the ski school administration, more starting times, beyond the traditional 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., must be offered. In the case of lessons beyond the wedge christie where fatigue is less of a factor and mileage becomes more critical, lessons should be longer.
- Performance guarantees, such as “if you don’t shortswing by the end of this (these) lesson(s), the next class is on us,” would clarify goals and make advanced ski instruction far less vague than it is presently. By making classes result-oriented, not only would instructors become more motivated, ski school could again become an “in” thing to do.
- Market the benefits of lessons. Play down the safety aspects of spending time in class. That’s important, but the concept is boring and can never sell. Play up the wind-in-the-face thrill, the adventure, the lift-line cutting privileges, the camaraderie of skiing with people who are exactly at your level, the joys of experiencing new terrain, new kinds of snow and new techniques to manage them — all under the watchful eye of a certified expert.
Rebuild the romantic aura that once surrounded the ski teacher. Encourage instructors to ski glamorously and be glamorous ambassadors of the sport. Present the instructor as an exciting personality. Tout charisma.
- Less generic classes; more specific clinics. Get rid of the well-let’s-see-what-we’ve-got-here approach to lessons. Part of most ski schools’ success with beginners is that instructors, without years of training, can follow a preset teaching path that permits them to express (and sell) themselves as individuals. To its credit, this is the crux of PSIA’s American Teaching System.
Better, more thorough teaching paths for intermediate, advanced and expert skiers need to be developed. Instructors must be trained to implement them, to have a big “bag of tricks” for dealing with powder, crud, bumps, steeps, ice and skiing in trees, chutes and flats.
In general, offer more targeted instruction. Less formal teaching, less talk, more skiing, more fun and more tangible progress. Stress elegance and style, and preach less about functionality and efficiency, which many see as “ugly.” Let terrain, snow conditions and the will of the class dictate the planned content of today’s lesson.
- More creative discounting for groups and assurances that groups, large and small, can stick together in class would convince more guests to spend time in ski school. Travel agents and tour operators need more incentive to sell lessons. Offer more comps to group leaders, “two lessons for the price of one,” even freebie mini-lessons for groups — to whet the appetite for more instruction.
- Encourage greater longevity for ski instructors. Maintaining instructional talent is an important consideration. The “best” teachers will drift off to other resorts or other professions if there is not a reasonable number of advanced students to work with. Selling more upper-level lessons, even if it means a slight erosion in the profit margin, can help. Teaching beginners all the time does not offer a high degree of job satisfaction.
- Attend more to locals. Virtually every ski area offers a program of some sort for elementary and high school students. But kids take these lessons for granted, especially if it’s free and part of a school phys. ed. program. They do not become word-of mouth salespeople for the resort and school.
A low-cost, flexible, by-invitation clinic series for locals, especially season pass holders, service people and business owners who share a vested interest in whether or not it snows, if handled properly and taught well, could be an immensely valuable sales tool. How much would it increase sales to have every bartender, ski shop employee, waiter, gas station attendant, hotel desk clerk and chamber maid in town singing the praises of his or her favorite instructor?
- Sexier packaging could make ski school more attractive. PSIA, which for all practical purposes governs the content of ski instruction in this country, has done a masterful job of developing a teaching system that is biomechanically sound, humanistic and extremely effective. But if the truth be known, the general public knows virtually nothing about the American Teaching System and couldn’t care less. Though they make sense academically, there is nothing sexy about PSIA’s new “Center Line” and “Common Threads” approaches to teaching.
The ski instructor’s organization and the industry as a whole need to present ski instruction in ways that will turn people on—without compromising the very solid content of the teaching system. We need to take a step back for better perspective, experiment with class formats, the station approach to terrain teaching, play with video more, look at marketability of the U.S. Demo Team (in Japan hot demonstrators are skiing’s heros at the moment), make learning more seductive and reward those instructors who really deliver business—for the resort as well as themselves.
Above all we can’t forget the obvious: that the satisfied, fulfilled guest is one who’s likely to return for more. Right now we don’t seem to have enough of those.
