Vermont Hits 4.3 Million Skier Visits for 2007-08 Season

[Greg]

Simply unbelievable how you clowns don't get the basics of PR and marketing. If you think the town won't find out the real number eventually so that they can fairly evaluate your Village aspirations, think again.

Let's not let this turn into K-zone. You could have fully made your point without the sentence above. Let's take the high road, folks. Criticism is fine, and I encourage thoughtful discussion and debate. Insults are unnecessary though.

 

[skiadikt]

There is a big difference between total skier visits that all areas report on an apples-to-apples basis, which includes comp tickets and a formula for calculating season pass visits, and the actual number of paid visits to each resort.
The story for Killington is not who wasn't here this year - those who historically skied on passes (All For One) from other mountains and deeply discounted or free tickets, but who were here this year - paying guests, who took advantage of a number of value opportunities, including season passes, multi-day tickets, lodging/lift packages, Express Cards and Countdown Cards.
We define our success on the experience we provide to our guests, including the quality of the snow product and guest service levels, in addition to operating a financially sustainable business that allows for reinvestment. This past season, the snow product was outstanding, and there were improvements in Guest Service. However, there is room for growth in both those areas moving forward.
From a financial standpoint we were very successful, which is evident by the $8.4 million were putting back into the mountain this summer in capital improvements, including a new lift and trail, snowmaking and facility upgrades.

it was obvious to anyone who skied k regularly that skier visits at k were down significantly this season so spinmasterk is doing a nice spin here. i think using the word "historically" when referring to the cheap 'all for one' passes is a bit of a misdirect. i think those passes were maybe a 3 year thing. (btw those people certainly weren't missed.) nonetheless success is easy when you define it with lowered expectations. sure the snow product for the most part was very good this season but where wasn't it in the northeast. weatherwise you couldn't have asked for a better start to the season and we had excellent snowfall throughout. let's see how successful they are when they have 3 or 4 consecutive poor snow seasons like asc did. as for the $8.4 million reinvestment, after all the negative pr and the 'damage' they did to the brand, they HAD to do something to regain some credibility and put some buzz back into the place. painting a few lifts and fixing the bathrooms just wasn't gonna cut it especially with the 50th anniversary next season.

 

[Tin Woodsman]

Let's not let this turn into K-zone. You could have fully made your point without the sentence above. Let's take the high road, folks. Criticism is fine, and I encourage thoughtful discussion and debate. Insults are unnecessary though.

Apologies. Nonetheless, the response from SPinmaster was so disingenuous it was insulting.

 

[Greg]

Apologies. Nonetheless, the response from SPinmaster was so disingenuous it was insulting.

Fair enough. Opinions are fine. Let's just try to keep the tone a little bit civil.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Apologies. Nonetheless, the response from SPinmaster was so disingenuous it was insulting.

+1...

 

[deadheadskier]

Apologies. Nonetheless, the response from SPinmaster was so disingenuous it was insulting.

Without trying to insult he/she as an individual, did you expect anything less from someone who's name is 'spinmaster'? To me, the term 'spin' suggests a disingenuous statement. Not always, but most of the time.

 

[Greg]

Without trying to insult he/she as an individual, did you expect anything less from someone who's name is 'spinmaster'? To me, the term 'spin' suggests a disingenuous statement. Not always, but most of the time.

In all fairness to Tom, that username was obviously made tongue-in-cheek. I guess my point of intervening here was because I enjoy the industry participation on this forum. Insults are going to drive them away and I don't want to see that happen. I don't mean to stifle opinions or criticism in any way. In fact, it's my hope that industry reps will take feedback seriously, but they won't if they are ridiculed and put on the defensive all the time. There's a right way to say things and I think online anonymity too often gives folks bigger balls to say things that they wouldn't normally say in person. Keep it real, folks.

 

[deadheadskier]

In all fairness to Tom, that username was obviously made tongue-in-cheek. I guess my point of intervening here was because I enjoy the industry participation on this forum. Insults are going to drive them away and I don't want to see that happen. I don't mean to stifle opinions or criticism in any way. In fact, it's my hope that industry reps will take feedback seriously, but they won't if they are ridiculed and put on the defensive all the time. There's a right way to say things and I think online anonymity too often gives folks bigger balls to say things that they wouldn't normally say in person. Keep it real, folks.

Oh, I agree with you and find industry representation to be a very good thing. Perhaps the username was made tongue-in-cheek, but with statements like the one being contested in this thread........

I'll leave at that. I really have no personal vested interest in Killington. I have very fond memories of skiing there in the spring as a kid and in high school, but where I have lived since, there are other areas I prefer better that are closer. I do look forward to skiing a couple days at Pico this winter and would definitely return to Killington again someday........in May.

 

[Geoff]

Oh, I agree with you and find industry representation to be a very good thing. Perhaps the username was made tongue-in-cheek, but with statements like the one being contested in this thread........

I'll leave at that. I really have no personal vested interest in Killington. I have very fond memories of skiing there in the spring as a kid and in high school, but where I have lived since, there are other areas I prefer better that are closer. I do look forward to skiing a couple days at Pico this winter and would definitely return to Killington again someday........in May.

I really don't have a whole lot of venom for a mid-level Killington marketing/communications guy. He's just trying to do his job. The guy who signs his pay check tells him what the message is. He's the poor sucker who has to deliver it. I certainly wouldn't want that job.

Imagine what it's like having a job where a big slice of the employee base, a big slice of the town, and a big slice of Killington's customer base think the new ownership and management have completely lost their way. The Killington brand used to be all about superlatives. Biggest, longest season, most vertical, most lifts, largest snowmaking system, longest-steepest bump run, hugest mogul competition party, best apres ski scene. If you're a MarCom guy, your job was easy and the message about the Killington brand was clear. The new message is more like "we're now almost as uncrowded as Sugarbush but bring lots of money". It's still the same tattered base lodges. It's still the same lousy food. It's still the same low-average level of service despite Killington's self-pronouncements. With the layoffs last summer, the contracted season, and the dramatic reduction in skier visits, employee morale isn't exactly great. The opinion in town is that these guys are a bunch of carpet baggers who won't be around long.

The thing that's lost in all of this is that the Killington midwinter weekend & holiday product really did get better. Skier visits are rolled back to early 1980's levels and the trail, lift, & base lodge infrastructure is no longer overloaded on peak weekends. Other than the big snowmaking blow to make June 1, their snowmaking quantitiy is comparable to the Preston Smith and early Les Otten years. Snowmaking quality is somewhat better though still not close to what it was in 1995 when the resort actually funded quality control properly. Killington is now a very good alternative on holiday weekends when other ski areas are overloaded with visitors.