Quick Start Park City

jamesdeluxe

jamesdeluxe

Administrator
Staff member
I've taken advantage of the arrival-day ticket three or four times, and I see they're doing it again this year.

Question: does anyone know if it's actually encouraged people to spend more money in Park City? I wonder how many people do the "one and out" like me... fly in, ski at The Canyons or Deer Valley for free, then spend the rest of the week in the Cottonwoods, at Snowbasin/PM, or Sundance.

Full disclosure: I have no problem skiing the PC areas, but as a rule, it's tough to find locals who'll go there with you unless they have a comp ticket as well.
 
forget park city even if it is snowing. you won't get the quality . ski somewhere in the canyons . skiing at alta has been nice &quiet.
 
Bobby Danger":12u3snpe said:
forget park city even if it is snowing. you won't get the quality .
Click to expand...

Bobby, I've got to differ with you on this one. When the snow's good, I've had amazing days skiing Jupiter at PCMR, or the ridiculously omnipresent aspen stands at The Canyons. Deer Valley's got great trees that their clientele never venture into, and you get that lunch. Mmmmmm...that lunch! :drool:

Really, when there's no new snow but bases are ample, what difference does it make? And even with a storm, what's the real difference between 18" and 24"? On a storm day the ski areas on the Wasatch Back offer many more opportunities to hide in the trees where visibility is better, too.

Bobby Danger":12u3snpe said:
skiing at alta has been nice &quiet.
Click to expand...

Now on that we'll agree. Real quiet. Frighteningly quiet. Quieter than I've ever seen it.
 
So no one's read an article or seen a TV report about how effective the program is in attracting people to Park City?

I'm wondering if they've had more success leveraging the free day so people could check out one of the ski resorts and town, and say "next time, I'll go to PC instead of the frontside areas" or has it been used as a carrot to get them to book their entire vacation there?

I assume it's working because the QS program has been going for several years now.

No need to argue the merits of PC vs. Cottonwoods.
:dead horse:
 
jamesdeluxe":1589ea5n said:
I'm wondering if they've had more success leveraging the free day so people could check out one of the ski resorts and town, and say "next time, I'll go to PC instead of the frontside areas" or has it been used as a carrot to get them to book their entire vacation there?
Click to expand...

It's used more as the former over the latter, from my conversations over dinner with one of the shakers at the Park City CVB, the program sponsor. He believes that it's been very successful in doing so, but I obtained no numbers to back that up.
 
Danke.

I think there was another thread about it, but on the local NPR station this morning, they were reporting that resort bookings in the northeast are up more than 25% from last year, as people forego a trip out west due to financial concerns.

It'll be interesting to see what kind of marketing initiatives and offers (in addition to QS) the ski areas will think up to make people reconsider their plans.
 
jamesdeluxe":1zzj9q4n said:
It'll be interesting to see what kind of marketing initiatives and offers (in addition to QS) the ski areas will think up to make people reconsider their plans.
Click to expand...

From KSL last night:

[skitube2]http://videos.ksl.com/video/widget/4984668.flv[/skitube2]
 
jamesdeluxe":1dbxw2s2 said:
Interesting.

The northeast areas were prepared for gloom and doom this winter, and now, they may end up profiting from this mess.
Click to expand...

We stand to do better than many Western areas, the theory being that we have a moderately-sized but dependable local skiing population. It's remote places like Crested Butte, Telluride, Big Sky, etc. that face the biggest uphill challenge.
 
That would be interesting to know (probably just for a marketing geek like me)... how much of each resort's revenue is destination skier-dependent as opposed to the money coming in from locals.
 
Mad River Glen also has something few of its Eastern contemporaries can claim. It is so different and intriguing that it is one of the few ski areas that Westerners regularly fly east to experience.
Click to expand...
I wonder where NY Times dreamed this up? I did it, but I was subsidized and I would still be viewed as the lunatic fringe by most westerners for doing that.

That would be interesting to know (probably just for a marketing geek like me)... how much of each resort's revenue is destination skier-dependent as opposed to the money coming in from locals.
Click to expand...
Yes, I would love to get those stats.

My understanding is that Utah is very evenly divided between locals and destination, but that the Cottonwoods are more locals while the Park City group is something like 75% destination. The other ski market like that (50/50) is Whistler. I'd guess Front Range Colorado also has a mix of areas favored by locals vs. destination.

It's remote places like Crested Butte, Telluride, Big Sky
Click to expand...
These are the ones that are high percentage destination. So they may be the ones to watch in terms of whether the economy has an impact this season. But remember from nearly 30 years of Kottke data that it's very hard to see impact of economy and fairly easy to see impact of weather. If the season continues below average the numbers are going to be down from last year's record season, and it will be blamed on the economy even if it's really the snow. So the way to look at it will be to compare the destination-heavy places to the local-heavy places. The local-heavy places are the most sensitive to snow conditions, because locals don't have to commit ahead and just stay home if it's not good. So if the destination-heavy places drop MORE (given comparable snow) it's the economy.

The QS promotion is IMHO just an attempt to attract/bolster business during nonpeak times. We know it's blacked out President's weekend through March, and I'd presume Christmas as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top