Posts tagged ski resort opening
One week to go!
22 years ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
The lifts will start turning for the 2009-2010 winter season at Park City Mountain Resort exactly one week from today at 9:00am! They will keep turning for 141 days, churning to a stop after closing day on April 11, 2010. For the operations departments – snowmaking, lifts, grooming, F&B, etc. this means that they will be front and center for the next, nearly five months (not that they haven’t been busting tail to get things ready for opening either).
For those of us involved in marketing and sales who have been working hard to put together and enact the marketing and sales plan, we can’t sit back and rest on our laurels. We have to keep pushing hard to ensure that everyone gets the word about how the season is unfolding (snow message, snow message, snow message), and just as importantly to work to engage with the skiers and riders that are at, planning to go to or have been to the mountain.
It seems to me that resort marketing and sales departments have traditionally turned to a more receptive mode once the season has started – sure, they have their snow reports and such – but they really have not kept their marketing program moving forward and evolving as the season has been in progress. With the big push into social media this year by resorts, there will be a lot of new things for resort marketing departments to really key on, here are five:
- Keep the flow of information in regards to conditions and updates coming on a much more frequent – real time if possible.
- Monitor online for real-time mentions of their resort and respond as appropriate – but this must be done in a very timely basis.
- Adjust marketing as needed to ensure that marketing messages don’t get stale – this is easily accomplish in online marketing – and also keep revising campaigns and testing.
- Check that internal communications keeps up with external, one of the toughest things about social media is ensuring that a companies employees are as up to date as its customers. A ski resort with staff all over a mountain can wind up in a situation with employees who don’t have radios, being not as informed as skier or riders who have smart phones with Twitter, Facebook, text or email updates.
- Be flexible – “The New Rules of Marketing and PR
” are evolving and moving forward at a speed that nobody can readily predict or even fully keep up with. Who would have predicted Google 12 years ago, Facebook 8 years ago, YouTube 5 years ago or even Twitter just a year or two ago would have the tremendous reach and impact that they do today?!
To wrap up, I hope that NSAA President Michael Berry is correct in his prediction for a good season, and I think that as usual, if it snows early and often, it will be a lot easier for ski resorts to attain that projection, but we can all hopefully attain a greater degree of success if we keep in mind a few of the things I note above. Think snow!!! 
Photo Credit: Me, posted to the PCMR Flickr account
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Open For Winter Already?!
72 years ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
Either they didn't use the breakaway banner or Loveland has an "interesting" new safety banner this season.
I’m trying to figure out exactly what the heck is going on this fall with so many resorts opening before the leaves even fall off the trees. I understand that Loveland Ski Area and A-Basin (both high in the Colorado Rockies) are usually leading the charge, but wow, Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard (under an hour from the Vegas strip) just missed out to Loveland by a few hours, both opening this past Wednesday while A-Basin and Boreal in California open today. According to the “Skiing Examiner“, this is the earliest for Loveland in 40 years and the earliest openings ever for A-Basin, LVSSR and Boreal.
So, what in the world is going on with these early openings? Here are a couple of quick thoughts and questions:
- Is the rush to open so early this season driven by the economic turmoil our nation’s economy is still recovering from – are resorts anxious to open early for the “positive PR” that it brings?
- El Nino – bring it on!
- Will these resorts be able to continue operations throughout the fall or will they need to close and then reopen once winter begins?
- That’s going to be a ridiculously long season at the Basin, if they make it through til June (like they often do) that will mean that they’ll be skiing and riding over nine months!
- I’d be so screwed if I lived by one of those resorts – I still have to rake my leaves and put the patio furniture away, ugh!
What do you think of this batch of super early openings? Let me know if the comments below.
Slowly ramping up
13 years ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
Getting a ski resort open for the winter season isn’t a matter of pushing a few buttons, having the chairlifts turn and people hitting the slopes. There are a slew of seasonal staff members to be trained in a wide variety of positions, carpets to be cleaned, snow to be made with snowguns then pushed and groomed with snowcats, sales contracts to be fulfilled, kitchens to be stocked, vehicles (from trucks to snowmobiles) to be tuned up, chairlifts and towers to be padded and on and on.
This season has presented an even greater challenge than usual because, due to an unusually warm and dry Fall, the resorts are opening quite a bit slower than planned. There aren’t as many skier and riders on the hill generating revenue, but it also means that many people are not able to start their seasonal jobs as quickly as planned. In addition, this work slowdown is found not only at ski resorts but also at the many hotels, restaurants and shops throughout Park City.
I saw the effects of this earlier tonight when I met a friend for a beer, and the bartender (another friend) mentioned to me that she would love to baby sit for my daughter this Friday night as she was about flat broke (she’s always wanted to babysit for us as well). While I know that its not atypical for many people to be short of cash in resort towns this time of year, I feel better knowing that we’ll inject a few dollars into our town by giving my friend some cash for babysitting and spend some more money at the restaurant that we’ll be dining at.
Here’s hoping for snow soon, to get the mountains open and for everyone that’s waiting to get to work – let it snow!
