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Deals, Deals, Deals
Yes, this has been a solid season for resorts across the country. But it’s clear, from the number and extent of the price promotions we’ve seen, that it remains difficult to separate resort visitors from their money.

Visitors are still not inclined to book far in advance, but resort marketers have learned that they can move the market in the moment. Call it Groupon thinking. One sign: Winter Park made an offer loosely tied to its 71st anniversary season: buy one night of lodging, and get the second for 71 percent off. The offer was good for a short time window, just three or four days, but it was valid for the President’s Day weekend.

But resorts aren’t doing just short-window discounting. In mid-February, Whistler Blackcomb was offering end-of-season deals, too. Of course, the resort could pretty well guarantee it would have snow; the twin resorts passed their average seasonal snowfall by mid-February, three months before the season ends.

Retail Business Is Back in the Black
After several years of mediocre to poor sales, the winter sports retail business has come roaring back this year. Fueled by product innovation and pent-up demand, outdoor sales are on pace for a record season. Rocker snowboards and skis, powder skis, helmets, there are several categories that have been going off. Hard goods sales have rebounded the most, reversing at least temporarily what had been several years of decline.

Will the good times last? No one at the SIA show was ready to declare the downward trend over, but most buyers seemed cautiously optimistic. That restraint might be the most optimistic sign of all.

Tale of Two Industries
It was with the success of this year’s Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month (LSSM) in our mind that we attended the Growing Participation Breakfast at the SIA show. About 200 people, most of them retailers, heard a panel of winter sports luminaries share their perspectives on the state of the industry and the need to bring in new participants.

It was something of a tale of two cities. Representatives from the retail and supplier community, Rossignol chief Tim Petrick and Pennsylvania retailer Paul Prutzman, recalled a decade of shrinking sales and flat skier and rider populations. On the flip side, Raelene Davis of Ski Utah described the many successes of this year’s LSSM, and NSAA president Michael Berry reviewed the steady growth in resort revenues and visits.

The juxtaposition of those divergent views appeared to get the attention of the retailers in the room. Several told us they had not heard of the LSSM program before, and were keenly interested to become part of the effort in coming years. That, of course, was the reason for the breakfast in the first place.

But enlisting the retail community will take effort. The takeaway from the breakfast is, it’s up to resorts to take the lead, invite local and urban retailers to join the effort, educate them on LSSM programs, and give them tools to promote our sports.

Untapped Markets Everywhere
While the main market-growing event at the SIA Snow Show was the Growing Participation Breakfast, Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month spokesman Glen Plake addressed the topic at a reception in Rental World, too. He spoke out on one of his favorite topics: the neglected dirt-track market. He has a point. Plake is a highly successful dirt-track driver. For many years, it was his off-season sport. Plake being Plake, he has talked to lots of spectators, and he knows that many car-racing fans--think NASCAR, not just dirt-track--feel they are not welcome at winter resorts.

Plake’s personal solution, for many years, was to give away lift tickets to his home mountain at dirt-track races. He knows that such a simple invitation is often all it takes to get people to the local hill.

There are other ways to reach this audience. For about $300, he points out, a resort could buy a panel on the race wall and make a lot of new friends--friends who love speed and are not afraid of it. Friends who have more money to burn than many resorts might imagine, too.

Michelle and the Kids Come to Vail
Like thousands of other families, Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia visited Vail on President’s Day weekend. And as with so many other families, a ski vacation is becoming an annual event for the Obamas. They got their start on the slopes last year at Ski Liberty, Pa. This is how it is supposed to work.

Unlike most families, though, the Obamas arrived on their own chartered 757, with friends and Secret Service in tow. It’s not easy for the First Family to be just folks. A few wags in online forums groused that the Obamas were wasting government money, but they seemed to be in the minority. Just in case, Michelle’s press secretary assured the public that the family is paying for its own personal expenses. Frankly, given the publicity the Obamas generate, we think this was money well spent.

Congress Takes Up Summer Biz Again
U.S. Senator Mark Udall, D-Colo., reintroduced his ski area summer recreation bill into the new Congress in mid-February. It’s the same bill that he introduced into the last session of Congress, where it was included in an omnibus land bill that Congress never voted on. In the current session, it stands a better chance of passage, assuming that Congress does not degenerate into gridlock again.

The bill, you may recall, spells out what sort of non-winter activities are permitted on Forest Service land leased by winter resorts. (See “Congress Considers Summer At Areas,” Blue Pages, September 2010, for details.) While the Forest Service has allowed summer activities that make use of existing facilities or that have similar human-powered characteristics, such as mountain biking, such uses are not explicitly included in resort lease agreements. The bill would catch up with actual practice and make year-round operations a part of these agreements and provide a framework for reviewing future activities. While it would prohibit some activities, like water slides and amusement parks, it would leave other activities, such as mountain coasters and canopy tours, up to the discretion of the local foresters.

The bill has broad support. It’s co-sponsored by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and backed by the winter sports industry, the Forest Service, and even some environmentalists. A similar measure in the House of Representatives is co-sponsored by Denver congresswoman Diana DeGette, a Democrat, and Utah’s Rob Bishop, a Republican. “As far as I know we have no opposition,” Udall says. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Time to Replace Aging Lifts?
A series of highly-publicized lift failures this winter has brought attention to the aging chairlift infrastructure in North American resorts. While the number of incidents may not be any greater than in recent years--mobile phones have made it much more likely that lift failures will become news--it’s also true that the lift population, like older Baby Boomers, is heading for retirement.

NSAA and others have been warning about this for years. The golden age of lift building in the U.S. was from the late 1960s until the early 1980s. The durability and longevity of those lifts vary widely, depending on both the manufacturer and the lift’s workload. Many are still functioning well, but that won’t be the case forever. If you haven’t developed a replacement plan or a rainy-day fund, now might be the time to do so.

Cost is a big consideration, of course. Paying for all those earlier installations crimped profits in the ’70s and ’80s. Twenty years later, once those lifts had been depreciated and paid for, the industry looked profitable. But now, or soon, it will be time to invest again. This year’s failures suggest that time could be sooner rather than later.

Ironically, maintenance costs have encouraged resorts to begin replacing some of the earlier detachable lifts that were installed during the ’80s. Justifying the replacement of fixed-grip lifts is not so easy, but eliminating the specter of negative publicity should be part of the equation.

Shortswings
Four ski patrollers who were fired at Sunshine Village, Alberta, after a run-in with the owner’s son are suing for wrongful termination, seeking $425,000 in damages . . .On Feb. 18, masked gunmen shot and killed three tourists on their way to Mt. Elbrus ski resort in the Caucasus region. In addition, a gondola at the resort was blown up. At presstime no-one had claimed responsibility, but a plan to turn the Caucasus into a tourist destination did not sit well with Islamist rebels who have been demanding a separate Islamic state in the North Caucasus. Russia is set to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in nearby Sochi.