For the past 10 years, the mountain resort industry has circled around the trial and conversion quandary: How do we get more than 15 percent of those who try our sports to stick with them? Resorts have found several remarkable ways to move the needle.


Several sessions at the first annual Conversion Camp, Mar. 4-6 at Jiminy Peak, Mass., addressed this issue. Resorts have a lot of new tools at their disposal. It’s just a matter of deciding which ones will work best at a particular resort.


If there is a common theme to these ideas, it’s that solutions require new thinking and big changes—and that big gains are quite achievable. As Joe Hession of Snow Operating LLC says, tweaking existing systems often leads to only marginal improvement. To create major change, it’s necessary to really rethink how a perfect introduction to skiing and snowboarding would look, and then find creative solutions to bring reality as close to that as possible.

THINKING DIFFERENTLY
Two recent resort programs demonstrate how achievable some seemingly impossible ideas are. Killington has racked up phenomenal results with its “free skis for beginners” offer, and Whistler can show, in dollars and cents, how its free “Never Ever Days” intro program has produced significant revenue gains.


The groundbreaking Killington/Elan Discovery Program and its free-skis offer to first-time skiers shocked most within the industry when it was unveiled last July. The deal: if a newbie completed a four-day introductory package ($249), he or she received a free pair of Elan skis. The program, limited to the first 380 persons to sign up and complete their package, was sold out by the first of the year. The resort charted the skiers’ progress and subsequent visits. As of March, 371 people had started the program, and 349—92 percent—had completed their four days. Many had already taken advantage of the program’s follow-up offers for half-price lift tickets and lessons for the remainder of this year (and next).


The program’s runaway success has convinced Killington to expand the program for next year. It will offer another 400 pairs of free skis, and add 200 pairs of snowboards, and perhaps kids gear as well.


At Camp, Killington spokesmen were asked whether the program had simply pre-selected the first-timers who were most likely to stick with the sport anyway. They had no answer for that. But even if that’s the case—isn’t it worthwhile to know who your most loyal new customers are? This group is likely to spend a great deal of time and money at Killington over the next several years.


DOING THE MATH
How much money? That’s hard to say. But Whistler Blackcomb did something equally brazen to attract newcomers, and it was able to track both its costs and the return on that investment. Snowsports director Bartosz Barczynski says that the resort’s Never Ever Days program—which offers free all-day lift, rental (including apparel), lessons and après-ski on a few specific days during the season—has seen a 30 percent conversion rate over the past two and a half years. It has attracted between 400 and 600 first-timers each year.


The program itself is very high touch. There is a maximum of four newcomers per group. The instructors meet never-evers in the rental shop, help them gear up, and guide them throughout the entire day, right into après-ski. Pros are given beer and ticket vouchers and encouraged to bring their charges to the base area watering hole for some après unwinding.


Over the program’s history through mid-February this past season, it had cost Whistler about $50,000 to host 1,393 first-timers. But it had generated at least $360,000 in ticket, lodging, and other credit-card spending, nearly two-thirds of that in lift tickets alone. Whistler has no way to track cash expenditures, but these surely boost the return even higher. And, as Barczynski points out, the benefits will continue to accrue for years, too, as the first-timers return to Whistler season after season.


If instituted at resorts across America, a program such as this (or Killington’s) would go a long way to meet the NSAA goal of increasing trial of skiing and snowboarding by six percent a year. In the U.S., this means about 60,000 additional newcomers, on top of the million or so who show up each year. That breaks down to 125 to 200 additional newcomers per resort, depending on which resorts and areas one includes in the count. Or, as Barczynski calculated for the Camp audience, if each area in the U.S. and Canada can convert just 50 additional newcomers, that would add 30,000 new skiers and riders a year.


When you look at it that way, NSAA’s goal looks very attainable.


TEACHING DIFFERENTLY
Terrain-based learning (TBL), which several resorts have adopted with almost universal success, represents a big change in teaching methodology. It is not some mere tweak of the traditional learning progression. It uses carefully shaped terrain to lead beginners through a series of learning steps, and it removes fear of going too fast from the experience. Beginners progress faster and, as a result, have more fun. (For a full report on TBL, see “Teaching by Terrain,” a web exclusive at saminfo.com under “Special Reports.”)


Fun expert Nicole Lazzaro of XEO-Design says that TBL succeeds, in part, because it incorporates four keys to fun that she has identified through her research. Some activities provide easy fun, she says, such as learning to glide on skis or boards. Some activities involve “hard fun,” in that they take more effort—which leads to a sense of victory and accomplishment—such as conquering the beginner hill. Some fun is social, just for our amusement—like learning along with others, or skiing with friends. And the sports themselves provide a long-term goal—or, as Lazzaro like to call it, “serious fun”—such as becoming an expert rider.


Lazzaro conducted her own small experiment with TBL this past winter, learning to snowboard at Sierra-at-Tahoe, where she had the chance to compare TBL to traditional lessons on consecutive days. The experience confirmed to her the benefits of TBL from the standpoint of learning through fun and of providing a series of achievable goals. On a scale of 1 to 10, she rated TBL an 11, and traditional teaching a 3.


Hession warns that the teaching program itself, while important, is only one piece of the introductory day. To really revamp the entire experience, resorts should address each of the steps first-timers must endure between the parking lot and the slopes, eliminate the bottlenecks and roadblocks, and ease the beginner’s path throughout the day.


In this process, as with the Killington and Whistler programs, Hession encourages resorts to start with a clean slate and rethink the entire learn-to procedure, not just look for incremental improvements to each step. Big progress requires new thinking.


Beginner instruction for skiers and riders will almost surely continue to evolve, and perhaps even take major leaps forward. Resorts will copy the Killington and Whistler programs (both areas, in fact, expressed a desire to work with others to make that happen) and concoct similarly novel and shockingly effective programs. Conversion is one of those rare instances when resorts can say, “we’re all in this together,” and really mean it.

 

TIPS FOR BOOSTING RETENTION

There are many proven steps and ample sources of ideas in addition to the programs cited above. Among them:


• The NSAA Cookbook, created nearly a decade ago and perhaps the most under-utilized resource in the NSAA arsenal. The Cookbook long ago identified the advantages of smaller class sizes, three-hour intro lessons (90 minutes is not enough), and moving instructors into the rental shop to help newbies acclimate to skiing and riding.


• The number-one stumbling block for beginners is getting the right fit with their boots. As integrated systems speed the rental process and reduce the number of techs needed, many shops are moving additional staff into the bootfitting area. The use of foot-sizing tools, even removing the liners from kids’ boots to check fit more precisely, are among the steps that resorts are taking to improve fit for guests. Instructors can help a lot in that regard. So would training to give employees the tools and knowledge to maximize fit during a 3- to 5-minute window.


• Many shops are adding greeters to meet guests as they enter the rental shop, to inform them about their choices, help fill out forms, and direct them to the next step. This helps remove the fear and anxiety that many newcomers feel as they enter unfamiliar territory.


• Software and digital media can provide more resources to assist guests before and after their visit. Resorts can use e-mail and websites to inform first-timers on what to expect and prepare them (as much as possible) for their first day, and follow-up e-mails can invite them back for future visits.