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Vail Resorts Bolts Colorado Ski Country, USA; It's A Budget Hit, But CSC Will Soldier On
By Craig Altschul
May 28, 2008
News broke just in time to create a buzz as cocktails started flowing at the National Ski Areas Association convention tonight (5/28) in San Francisco. The Industry Report has learned that Vail Resorts (Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, and Keystone) has pulled the plug on its membership in Colorado Ski Country, USA, the 26-member trade association that has been plugging the Centennial State as a snow sports mecca for 45 years.
Reason for the pullout: "philosophical differences with other members over the future direction of the association."
CSC spokesman Nick Bohnenkamp said Vail Resorts is the trade association's largest member and the reduction to 22 members will call for "some real creativity by the staff team and board." He said the association does not expect any more defections. The budget hit is reportedly $1.2 million (estimated for the IR by knowledgeable sources). It is an amount Vail Resorts apparently felt could be better spent elsewhere.
CSC's income sources, Bohnenkamp says, come from member resort dues, sales of Gold Passes, and corporate sponsorships. CSC began principally as a marketing venture in the sixties. The early efforts were led by the venerable ski industry drumbeater Steve Knowlton, a former Olympian.
Today's association includes departments of public policy, governmental affairs, marketing, communications, and international marketing.
"CSC will continue to be a leader in and a vital player in the Colorado and national ski industry," CSC President Rob Perlman told the IR upon his arrival at the NSAA convention late today. "We'll have to make some adjustments, but we'll continue to be effective." He would not comment on the reasons for the defection, leaving that to Vail spokespeople, but did indicate that "Vail Resorts apparently couldn't align itself with the goals of others in the state industry."
Perlman, incidentally, resigned mid-month to accept the position of vice president for sales and marketing at Intrawest's Steamboat Resort. He will remain CSC president through the group's annual meeting in mid-June.
The fissure centers on the trade group's future role and Vail Resorts' desire that the association behave more like NSAA, California Ski Industries Association, and others that concentrate their mission on public policy, advocacy, and government affairs, not marketing and public relations.
Vail Resorts President Rob Katz said in prepared release late this afternoon that "the change in Colorado resort ownership in the past several years, coupled with a rapidly changing economy and competitive market place, has necessitated a review of the right future for Colorado Ski Country." He said VR feels the marketing function should be handled by "working collaboratively with the Colorado Tourism Office."
He said VR had hoped "to be a catalyst for positive change, but unfortunately, a number of the other members did not agree with our vision and we were unable to resolve those differences."
Rumors of stormy weather on the front range have been afloat for several months, but that's hardly unusual in Colorado or elsewhere this time of the year. The timing of the news, however, with much of the ski industry leadership arriving in the City by the Bay, is like adding gasoline to a fire.
Bohnenkamp said CSC's Gold Pass program, its Gems of the Rockies marketing effort on behalf of its smaller, not-necessarily-destination members, and other programs will survive the hit. "We have a lot of creative people here."
WHAT IT MEANS: The issue of trade associations being involved in marketing - or not - could reverberate across the land and that, alone, bears following. Will the public be confused if CSC goes to market without one of the world's best known brands? Will the Gold Pass sell without Vail Resorts? Will the budget cuts seriously affect staffing and programs? Whatever, tonight's topic over NSAA hors d'oeuvres is certain to be spiced up by late afternoon news.
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