SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., Aug. 27, 2024—Drawing insights from a survey of ski area marketers across North America, the inaugural "Outlook on Resort Marketing" report, created by SAM Magazine and MMGY Origin, is now available exclusively for SAM subscribers.

Designed as a key resource for marketing professionals in the ski industry, the report provides data-driven analysis of trends, challenges, and strategies. According to the survey, 69 percent of respondents represented small to mid-sized resorts, with skier visits of 250,000 or less, offering a glimpse into the marketing approaches of resorts of varying sizes and scales.

This inaugural report provides a benchmarking tool that will be updated annually, allowing the industry to track year-over-year changes in marketing strategies, tactics, team compositions, concerns, opportunities, and more. Some key highlights from this year’s report include increased spending on digital and social media marketing, a trend toward larger in-house creative teams, and the growing role of artificial intelligence in content creation. 

The table of contents includes: 

• Introduction
• Executive summary
• Methodology and respondents
• Resort size and role at the resort
• Budget changes year-over-year
• Marketing budget priority shifts
• Most productive channel by return on ad spend
• Spending increases and decreases
• Biggest concerns
• Staffing and size of in-house teams
• Social justice
• AI use and plans
• Marketing lessons and missteps
• Use of marketing agencies
• Reciprocal relationships and multi-resort passes
• Plans for the 2024-25 season
• Conclusion

SAM subscribers can access the report by emailing karolyn@saminfo.com.