Resort rankings – do people still pay attention to them?
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This post was inspired by the Ski Magazine’s 1st Resort Awards Gala this past weekend – which was a great party with a great vibe – it was more about the passion and direction of the sport of skiing than about the awards, which was really cool.
Ski Magazine has been doing an annual reader’s poll resort rankings for more years than I can remember while Transworld Snowboarding has been doing a their own reader resort poll (with different topics of course) for a heck of a long time as well. There are plenty of other online polls but those two are what I would consider the standard bearers for ski and snowboard resort rankings.
I recall seeing people when I went to ski shows about 10 years ago who would bring the resort ranking issues with them to the show and then dutifully visit the booths of each resort that ranked well in the categories that they had dog-eared. Having worked a similar ski show the past two years, I don’t recall seeing many people, if any wandering the show’s aisles in that manner. This leads me to ask the question in this posts title, are people still paying attention to the various resort polls and more to the point, do they pay enough attention to warrant making serious efforts to move up in the polls, or at least in the categories that a resort can get better in. By this, I mean that it’s pretty tough for a resort like Telluride to make moves on any of the Park City area resorts, but with the appropriate mountain improvements they certainly can move up in challenge or perhaps family amenities. But, even if a resort does make improvements with an eye to move up in Ski Magazine or Transworld Snowboarding’s reader polls will they see results to justify any investments?
Personally , I’m not sure that it’s worth it any longer, or that it ever really was, worthwhile to invest merely to move up in rankings. A resort should invest inline with its strategic plan and if that helps to boost rankings, hooray, but if it’s other areas that need improvement or rebuilding, so be it. Am I right or wrong?
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I enjoy checking out the rankings but they don't hold much real value to me. I don't travel very much be it summer or winter so I usually end up snowboarding at my local resorts, which never make the rankings.
I've also grown skeptical of what people say and think. In my personal experience I have many times heard someone describing a local mountain to someone else that does not reflect my opinion at all… sure I don't know all there is but I have a very solid knowledge of what the local resorts have to offer. It makes me wonder who is voting on these major polls by TW and Snowboard Mag… How much are the rankings driven by mountains successfully encouraging people to vote for them?
Martin, I do have a bit of knowledge in how some of the reader polls are done, and there is a lot of effort to discourage resorts from "stuffing" the ballot box. That said, these sorts of polls will always show certain biases and odd results.
What you noted is key IMO, how much will people trust in a group of people that they don't know as opposed to a close friend or even an acquaintance that wants to share their experience in terms of where to ski or ride? Maybe it's time to see about making sure that your resort has some positive reviews on TripAdvisor (and no, I don't mean reviewing yourself, more like helping your customer evangelists to fill out a review)?