Who knew? Think back to those somewhat scary days of early fall when the 2020-21 ski season was coming out of its shell.
COVID-19 was re-surging in many metro regions. Vaccines were just “maybes” on the far horizon. We just were starting to multiply our collection of colorful masks. Ski resort managers were putting protocols in place that had been discussed and spurred on aggressively and cooperatively by the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). “Ski Well. Be well” was quickly becoming the new season’s battle cry.
Today, with some resorts ready to pull down the curtain to prepare for a promising summer of domestic travel and the handful of Eastern areas and bunches of Western snowfields looking to stay open another month or more, it’s probably time to take stock of what happened.
Industry should be proud
“The industry should be proud of what they have been able to achieve in the past year,” NSAA President and CEO Kelly Pawlak told OnTheSnow.com. “I knew they would excel on the operations side because they are masters at responding and flexing to a myriad of situations and environments.
“On top of developing and implementing strong COVID-19 best practices, they proved that when the industry works together on a common goal, more can be achieved,” she said.
Pawlak said she is looking forward to using this collaborative approach on other important industry initiatives and programs such as “safety, climate action and building more inclusive and diverse mountain environments and workplaces.”
Still, when we asked more than a few industry marketers and CEOs for specifics of how the ’20-’21 lessons learned would be applied to next season and beyond, we were stonewalled into an avalanche of “we’re still finishing this season” and “discussions will start next month” and “it’s way too early to commit.” All were polite, of course. But, only one was forthcoming.
Meyers, Wachusett look ahead
That was Tom Meyers, the highly respected 25-year marketing veteran at Wachusett, one of the East’s most popular resorts. Crowley-family owned Wachusett consistently lures the Boston Metro throngs of families to the tune of 350,000 or more annually, certainly among the highest volume ski areas in the country for its size.
Meyers didn’t hold back, noting how Wachusett communications and marketing strategies changed so much that “one-to-one marketing” led to significantly reducing the type of broadcast advertising that led to so much of the resort’s success over many years.
“We didn’t put out our ‘Wa-Wa-Wachusett’ jingle once this season,” Meyers laughed, “and our local brand awareness was built on that jingle.”
