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To submit a news item send an email to press@mountainnews.com. The Industry Report is published by Mountain News Corp., which also publishes OnTheSnow.com Editor-In-Chief: - Craig Altschul Executive Editor: - Roger Leo President & Publisher: - Rob Brown Managing Director: - Chad Dyer Advertising Information: - sales@mountainnews.com Subscriptions:
Archives: - September 2009 - August 2009 - July 2009 - June 2009 - May 2009 - April 2009 - March 2009 - February 2009 - January 2009 - December 2008 - November 2008 - October 2008 Recent Posts: |
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« Previous Story | The Industry Report Home Page | Next Story » Once Around The Ski Pole...By Craig Altschul 
We took some heat here at the IR when we opined in our Feb. 28, 2008 issue that a deal was in the works for CNL to acquire Big Sky and lease it back to Boyne. We wrote at the time: "It appears to be safe enough for the IR to speculate Boyne is simply absorbing its 2007 shopping spree and a deal with CNL will likely happen once the snow melts and everybody at Boyne takes a deep breath." Well, lo and behold, CNL made an interest-bearing loan to the Boyne group this month for $68 million and will acquire Big Sky for $74 million when the loan matures in 2010, then leasing it back to Boyne. It appears the shopping spree has been absorbed and that, if you were paying attention, you read it here first by eight months. Hey, we live in the mountain resort kitchen. We can handle the heat... An interesting "inside baseball" incident occurred last week. Bob Struckman, editor of New West magazine's Missoula edition, did the appropriate journalistic legwork and dug out some solid quotes from Moonlight Basin CEO Lee Poole on how the resort will function now that its banking partner, Lehman Brothers, has tanked. Struckman's quotes, obtained by a series of e-mails with Poole, were picked up verbatim by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle without attribution. Other media grabbed them from the newspaper story (including OnTheSnow.com, but at least ours was inadvertent, though still inappropriate, and we carried a correction on our consumer Web site). Struckman perhaps expressed the frustration all editors feel when this sort of thing occurs – far more nicely than he needed to: "Dang!" said Struckman... Is the sky falling? Travel Industry Wire reported it this way Oct. 10: "Airlines reported sharp declines in passenger traffic in September. Hotel occupancy rates are down, and corporate travel managers are demanding new concessions on previously negotiated deals. Cancellations are starting to rise even at four and five star hotels, which previously seemed immune to the economy's travails." The Industry Report will take a hard look at the situation after the dust settles. It's a bit depressing to look at it every week. Sort of like checking your stock fund reports every day... Arguably the largest and most influential consumer snow sports show in the world kicks in this week. It's the 35th annual Metro Ski & Snowboard Show at Olympia Exhibition Hall (in West Kensington), London. Metro is a tabloid distributed free weekday mornings to the city's gazillion commuters. The show takes on new importance at Mountain News Corp, as this company (publishers of the IR and OnTheSnow.com) has jumped into the U.K. show with both boots on. OnTheSnow is published in 13 editions and in 9 languages. The U.K. edition has been greeting British skiers and riders for years and, according to Hitwise, has over 250,000 monthly unique visitors. Mountain News European-based editors Patrick Thorne and Alicia Gough will be on hand working the show for news, while International Sales Manager Rob Werner will meet with many advertisers and help greet skiers at the first OnTheSnow.co.uk London booth. Even though the famous tube signs remind us to "Mind The Gap" when de-tubing, there's no gap in our world-wide coverage... There's still time to check in on the remaining pre-season Webinars offered by Mountain Travel Symposium. The Airline Industry: Revolutionary Change is Tuesday Oct. 21 noon-1 p.m. (MDT). The session will be led by Mike Boyd of the Boyd Group who will suggest strategies for survival in an industry like ours – "caught in the middle between air-dependent guests and a changing air-carrier scenario." A final session Oct. 29 (same time) features Ralf Garrison from MTRiP. Title is 2008-2009 Outlook: Market Forces, Indicators, and Sneak Peak. It's aimed at owners and managers of tourism-dependent businesses faced with charting a course through this economic morass. A session last weak featured Dr. Peter Yesawich of Y Partnership. Call MTS at (888) 365-2220 for details. « Previous Story | The Industry Report Home Page | Next Story » |
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