Posts tagged ski resort
Favorite Ski Resort Digital Presence
03 months ago
by Eric Hoffman
in poll
All of the “Best of” this that and the other are starting to come out on in magazine’s and across the web, which got me to thinking a bit about which ski resort’s are doing the most interesting, innovative and effective things with their digital efforts – meaning their website, social media and interactive advertising campaigns. I know that I’ve missed some, so please add any resort that you think belongs on this list, and if you think a resort is doing something of particular interest I’d love it if you described it in the comments. So, without further ado, here’s the list (note that this is for the 10-11 season as many resorts don’t have their 11-12 sites or campaigns fully implemented as of yet):
I haven’t added website or social links, leave a comment if you can’t find any of these online, and yep, I am a bit biased on at least one of the Resorts I included on here, pretty easy if you know me and if not please click here.
Photo credit: Flickr user Snap®Welcome to my "Resort Marketing" blog. I hope that you will consider subscribing to my blog's feed or leaving a comment on this post. I look forward to seeing you again soon and thank you for visiting!
Airline Fee Model for Ski Resorts?
44 months ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
Airlines are raking it in with their fees these days…$1.38 Billion (for baggage and reservation changes) in the first three months of this year alone! Now, I don’t agree that airlines pay no taxes on the fees they collect from things such as checked bags, assigned seats, itinerary changes and those lovely ‘snack packs’. In particular, I find a statement from Spirit Airlines’ CEO Ben Baldanza in his testimony before the House Transportation Committee that checked bags are “not essential” to travel. Well Mr Baldanza, for anyone going on a vacation other than to a nudist colony, you might want to pack along a change or two of clothes, and if you’re taking a ski vacation I can think of a few other items to pack along as well.
This did get me to wondering if perhaps the airline fee-based model could work for the ski resort industry. In fact, here are a few ideas for fees that ski resorts could charge as well as a “lift ticket”:
- Parking Fee – how about charging even more for people who don’t pre-pay for their parking?!
- Man-Made Snow Access Fee – this would a great revenue producer in the early season, if you don’t pay, you don’t get to ski on the runs with man-made snow
- Grooming Fee – those fancy grooming machines aren’t cheap and the people who drive them don’t work for free, so why not a fee to ski the groomed runs
- Terrain Park Fee – jibs and jumps need a huge amount of building and maintenance
- Mountain Evacuation Fee – I figure this could apply to any number of things, from toboggan rides to lift evacs
- First Tracks Fee – for those who adhere to the “No friends on a powder day rule” and can afford to buy their fresh tracks
- Front of the Line Fee – lift-line cutting fee for those who hate to wait
- Gear Fee – you can ride the lift, but if you want to bring along a ski, pole or snowboard…pay up
What do you think about this shift to à la carte based pricing in the travel industry? Is it good, bad and what other crazy fees do you think a ski resort could charge for?!
Photo Credit: rcmaclean on Flickr
Who are the Big Players in the Ski Resort Business
04 months ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
The September 2011 issue of Ski Area Management (SAM) Magazine, included a well executed document showing ownership changes of North American Ski Resorts. It’s amazing to see all the changes over the past 18 years, seems like only yesterday ASC was buying Wolf Mountain, but wow, I guess it really was back in 1997! Take a peek (click the image below for the PDF) and be sure to check in w/SAM for updated versions:
How do you “rort” a ski resort?
05 months ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
Dear readers,
I admit it, I’ve ben slacking off on this blog for a few weeks. I’d like to say it was due to the fact that we snuck away for a 10-day family road trip vacation out to the Bay Area via Yosemite and back again, but it’s more been due to the fact that I’ve been super busy with work related projects and spending the remaining time with my family. But, the Resort Marketing Blog must soldier on, particularly when I come across a headline like the one I recently found via my Google+ “Sparks” stream:
“Ski boss accused of rorting Baw Baw”
After a quick wikipedia search, I learned that “rorting” is what our friends in Australia and New Zealand use to describe government embezzlement, I have to admit I really wasn’t sure what it might mean and was actually a bit relieved to hear that. I hope the charges don’t pan out, as it’s never nice to here about any wrongdoing in your industry, but it certainly caught my attention and provided an interesting way to kick off the blogging season – welcome back!
Photo credit: Flickr user Jeff Belmonte
A quick mobile question
27 months ago
by Eric Hoffman
in poll
This question is intended to see how people prefer to interact on the mobile web. Therefore it’s perhaps a bit intentionally vague as it’s really trying to see what users’ like in general as opposed to more specific uses. Please pass along the link and thanks in advance for participating!
Sidecountry
010 months ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
A recent article about sidecountry access from ski resorts titled, “Sidecountry Ski Deaths Spur Safety Debate” focuses on the fact that deaths and rescues of skiers and riders in the out of bounds, but readily accessed terrain at many ski resorts called “sidecountry”, are increasing. It’s interesting that this article focuses on the fact that these incidents are increasing but on the “why”. I know this has been hashed through before, but I do think that this phenomenon is related to the rampant promotion of big mountain skiing and riding as well as the fact that equipment advances have made the “steep and deep” terrain that is accessible through many backcountry access gates more readily rideable. These factors, along with the push by resorts to open terrain the past decade that has never been open to the public before are all contributing, in my opinion, to the increase in accidents and deaths.
‘d like to pose the question, should resorts that offer sidecountry access be addressing these safety concerns more directly in their marketing efforts, or are the on-hill educational and signage that they are providing enough? As a skier I do think that most resorts I’ve seen do a rather admirable job of signing and trying to educate their customers on the risks of accessing the sidecountry from their boundaries. That noted, it could be said that some of these resorts’ marketing departments are doing an equally good job of selling that sidecountry access to their customers, many of whom should not venture anywhere near to the sidecountry due to their lack of appropriate knowledge, equipment and/or both. Are we walking a dangerous line between the freedom to experience what the backcountry has to offer us (with a little lift assist), and giving perhaps to easy access to potentially deadly terrain which we are in some ways encouraging them to experience? I don’t think so, but what do you think?
Photo credit: Flickr user dvsIs Online Video Advertising an Opportunity for Ski Resorts?
01 year ago
Many ski resorts have embraced online video production and I expect to see more and more as we get into the coming 2010-2011 Winter Season. In fact, I’ve already posted example of a few interesting ski resort online videos:
- Double Diamond – Double Rainbow featuring a video from Stowe
- First Resort to Open a Boon or Bust? featuring a video from Loveland
Producing videos to show off a resort once a visitor is on your site, or a video that can be shared, or found via search is wonderful. However, a recent presentation from eMarketer got me to wondering if perhaps ski resorts should also be focusing in on online video advertising as well. Here’s the presentation:
eMarketer Webinar: Video Advertising Engagement
View more presentations from eMarketer.
What do you think?
High-Tech Ski Resorts
21 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
A recent post titled the Top 10 High-Tech Hotels, prompted me to think about technological innovations that have been adopted by ski resorts. So, without further ado, and in no particular order, the top high tech uses by ski resorts (I haven’t tied many of these to specific resorts as many are in use at multiple resorts):
- Epic Mix by Vail Resorts, taking RFID lift ticket scans and blending it with social media is an intriguing direction that we’ll all be watching in 2010-2011.
- Groomers using GPS, like PistenBuly’s SNOWsat, to more effectively groom trails by optimizing mountain travel and passes on each run.
- For skiers and riders that are searching for the best lift ticket deals, using the online only site, Liftopia is probably the best use of tech for searching out lift ticket deals.
- Ski resorts with all-mountain cellular coverage – this one isn’t really up to an individual resort, as cell tower placement is obviously driven by cellular providers, but it can be awfully nice to have cell service around a mountain.
- Renewable green power efforts, most notably the Jiminy Peak and Grouse Mountain on-mountain wind turbines, are a beneficial way to use technology to reduce carbon emissions as well as save money.
- RECCO avalanche rescue technology, which allows for a beacon style rescue that uses technology that is embedded in many ski boots and clothing and will even give directional bearing to many cell phones.
- High-speed detachable lifts, which have completely changed how we ski and ride – on the chairlift topic, does the addition of heated seats to a lift add a technological boost to lifts, or is it just something else to break?
I know I’ve only scratched the surface of how ski resorts are integrating technology into their operations, please add additional examples in the comments!
Photo credit: Flickr user Leo-setä
Resort rankings – do people still pay attention to them?
21 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
Vote Here
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?
Photo credit: Flickr user GirlReporter
Google Trends Ski Searches
11 year ago
by Eric Hoffman
in article
Google offers up such a wide array of amazing tools and applications that some of their coolest items sometimes can be overlooked. One of my favorite tools, that I don’t use often enough, is Google Trends. What this tools does is allow you to see what Google’s users are searching for over time and by region. What does that mean, well, I want to see when searches for “Ski Vacation” start to trend up – I search and this nice chart comes up:
Pretty slick eh, and it shows how the fourth and first quarter of the year look like ski jumps up and down to a point just before the end of the calendar year. Another neat component to this chart is the smaller graph on the bottom showing news reference volume – how often “ski vacation” appeared in news stories indexed by Google. It doesn’t show the trend I would expect of stories appearing slightly before the ski season.
Another nifty function is the ability to compare multiple terms (separate them using commas in the search box) at the same time. I decided to compare a couple of Vermont resorts over the past year and got these results:
Scale is based on the average traffic of stowe from United States in the last 12 months.
stowe 1.00, killington 0.50, sugarbush 0.18, okemo 0.25
I think this chart shows both the positive and shortcomings of this service. First, isn’t it awesome how you can compare brand specific keyword searches on the biggest search engine? On the other hand, simple comparisons like this can expose issues, like how I’ve managed to capture a bunch of town of Stowe related searches in this comparison, while the others are more centric to resorts. This isn’t something that can’t be overcome, but you need to be cognizant of other potential reasons people might be searching for our terms before reading too much into results.
One last really useful trick to use with Google Trends is to switch from comparing searches to comparing websites, this is a bit more difficult in the ski resort business as there aren’t many resort website with enough traffic to appear consistently in these results, but I highly recommend keeping this as well as the other trend related searches in your bag of tricks
