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Are Ski Clubs Changing With The Times? Part II

By Craig Altschul
June 14, 2006

"We just had a ski club group return from Machu Picchu in Peru," said Far West Ski Association President Mike Sanford. "We've sent groups down the Rhone River and on Scandinavian cruises. We have another group heading out to the Panama Canal later this summer. It's all about athletics and social activities."

Ski writer Dick Healy of The Record Journal in Troy, N.Y., believes that this so-called "adventure travel" beyond the ski slopes is a "strong point with clubs today. For example, the Schenectady Wintersports Club offers extensive biking, boating, and hiking adventures and so do most of the other clubs in the Capital District Ski Club Council. The council's annual softball tournament this month will draw over 1,500 people. The year-round aspect is keeping members active and involved."

But, what about the age differences? SkiEurope President Richard Davidson notes that his tour company has watched several ski clubs try to bridge the generation gap, "mainly unsuccessfully."

"If one is to evaluate the reasons for the current situation of ski clubs, only part of the blame lies with the clubs themselves," Davidson told The Industry Report. "They definitely were slow, even resistant, to embrace younger members and new technologies, like snowboarding."

But, Davidson believes "the inherent characteristics of the younger demographic cohorts played an equal or greater role than did ski club inaction." He says his staff has heard the complaint, "why would I want to associate with people the age of my parents?" He might, we suppose, add "grandparents."

Are resorts still pursuing the ski club market with vigor? Despite the aging and the probable number decline, ski journalist Ted Heck of the Harrisburg Patriot-News says "ski clubs are still the major targets of the annual ski sales shows that come into Pennsylvania mining for skiers and groups. Many tour and travel agents are on hand. Some Western resorts show up, as do the big ones from New York and New England, and some from Europe."

The structure of the ski market has significantly changed, Davidson explains, and that has affected the ski club market. "To start with, affinity groups are no longer a prerequisite to economic travel. As airlines, lodging companies, and even mountains, became focused on yield, rather than volume, group pricing has become less attractive to them, particularly in the desirable time periods."

Davidson says that the resorts also pursued clubs more directly than they do now. "They were able to fudge the marketing and operating costs across the various departments." Now that each department or element is accountable, it's not quite as easy to hide party catering costs in a marketing budget.

All the while, Davidson and several others told us, the emergence and the consolidation of ski tour operators into powerful driving forces for customer generation has taken hold. "The resorts finally recognized that a tour operator who generated a steady, but modest volume of guests throughout the winter (and summer), and did so year-after-year, was much more valuable than a single-shot, once-in-five-years ski club that also expected more gratuities," he said.

The annual Mountain Travel Symposium, held last spring at Squaw Valley, Calif., draws representatives of close to 150 ski clubs who spend a full day and more meeting in individual sessions with resort sales reps, lodges, and tour operators. The event, which draws over 1,000 sellers and buyers each year, continues to grow and the emphasis on ski club sales has not outwardly diminished.

Lodging is another issue for clubs. Most upscale resort development today is in condos, which are often not suitable for ski club business, either in configuration or in availability.

Far West's Sanford turns the tables a bit and make it clear that there are important values to the ski industry inherent in the ski club world, beyond trips and customers.

"We have plenty of political power with our 40,000 members and we can use it on behalf of industry issues where we share common ground, such as environmental issues, land restrictions, and other things requiring response clout. We fully embrace the idea that we are partners with the resort industry," Sanford said.

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