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No More January 'Thaw' - Down Time Is Filling Up

By Craig Altschul
November 27, 2006

Those lazy, hazy days of, er, January, are gradually filling up. With skiers and snowboarders.

The early weeks of each new year have brought holiday hangovers to resorts trying to meet projected visitor numbers for decades. The weather is either at its coldest or - more often in the Northeast - finds a way to thaw out for a week or more. The Martin Luther King holiday has helped considerably if the weather cooperates.

But, it is aggressive marketing on all fronts that seems to be filling beds and chairlifts better than ever before. How is your resort or agency faring in January? Let us know in the box below.

"Groups have really filled our January," Crested Butte's Gina Kroft told The Industry Report. "We have two weeks of college kids booked - 1,300 and 1,700 back-to-back - the MLK holiday, and then more groups."

Ski Utah's Nathan Rafferty says: "you're right on target. January used to be a bigger dip, but it's more like a speed bump now."

Rafferty says the time frame has filled in more and more to the point where he has heard rumblings about attempts to shift the huge Sundance Film Festival - an 11-day orgy of independent movies, eating, drinking, and once-in-a-while skiing - into the quieter first two weeks of December. The Film Festival currently fills the January mid-points. "I hear that's a very unlikely shift though," he says.

The Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) at Lake Placid, N.Y., has long insulated itself from the vagaries of a frozen January because it offers such a variety of wintry things to do.

"Business looks good for January," says ORDA's Sandy Caligiori. "We have a NASCAR/bobsled event, figure skating competition, World Cup freestyle skiing events, and weekend hockey tournaments all wrapped around MLK weekend. Many of our guests come here for the variety. January appears to be no different."

Incentives make a big difference, says Mark Uhlfelder of Ski.com, one of the largest independent firms selling winter vacations.

"Yes, there is a down time," Uhlfelder told us. "Some resorts, like Aspen, have somewhat plugged it with events like Gay Ski Week and the X Games, but most find that reservations and advance bookings are weak between Jan. 2 and Feb. 15."

Ski.com and United Airlines have teamed with many resorts to offer all kinds of incentive lures for vacationers to book those dates.

Here are a few examples of the best ones, according to Uhlfelder: His customers get a $100 credit by booking an air-inclusive five-night package. Vail/Beaver Creek, Jackson Hole, Crested Butte, and Steamboat are offering free flights, lodging, and skiing for kids under 12 who book with their parents. Banff and Whistler in Canada also are offering free flights for kids.

Telluride has the "Mid-Winter Whopper" program where many town and village lodges and the ski resort offer deep discounts for those dates.

"There are many lodging properties at resorts offering us discounts which are under the Special Deals section of Ski.com," he says.

How about the rest of the season? "We're struggling a bit in early Feb. right now until the President's Week holiday period, so we are aggressively trying to fill that time period with e-mail blasts, direct mail, a billboard, and radio," says Kroft. "It's a little too early to critique March, and spring break is good for all of us, but we are starting to target late March through Easter right now."

Are you thawing out or filling up? Let us know.

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