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Mountain Travel And Dodging Bullets: 'We're Getting Really Good At It'

By Craig Altschul
May 04, 2009

Dodging bullets has become a way of life for the travel industry in general, and largely because of seasonal timing, the mountain resort piece of it all. We posed a "what if" scenario to Ted Curtin and Penny Smith of Rocky Mountain Tours (Ski The West.com).

"What if," we asked them, "the H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak slammed into the peak of the past winter season?" They had plenty to say.

"Certainly, if there is one thing our industry - and in fact the greater travel industry as a whole - has seen a lot of over the past two decades, it's challenges. I actually think we're getting really good at these. If only we could predict them a little better," Curtin, vice president of marketing, told The Industry Report.

Smith, vice president of sales, didn't flinch. "It would have been even more devastating for our industry than the depressed economy. News travels more quickly than ever before and people are acutely aware of every word said about an outbreak such as swine flu.

"Our officials should think of the outcome of their words instead of saying whatever first comes to mind when questioned," she said. "The tourism industry and business will be affected negatively by emotional statements and opinions that have not been thought out and will increase undue panic."

Smith was referring to Vice President Joe Biden's advising people to avoid traveling in an airplane or other enclosed space in response to a question on the NBC "Today" show last week. That ad sparked outrage from numerous travel industry reps, including American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith, who said the comment "bordered on fearmongering." Later that evening, "The Tonight Show's" Jay Leno quipped that the Vice President perhaps had acquired "foot in the mouth disease."

Smith and Curtin certainly acknowledged the seriousness of the outbreak, but as Smith puts it, "to have healthy people stay home and live in a bubble until this is over is pretty unrealistic."

Curtin said he thinks our ability to warn people and to be proactive is the way we can take something like this and prevent it from getting out of control. "But there is a big difference between prudence and panic. When people – from regular folks to the vice president - take that information and misuse or twist it with sensationalism, we play on people’s fears and risk damaging entire business, education, transportation, and social systems."

Curtin turned the discussion toward next season. "Just when we started to see messages about bright spots in the economy, signs of economic hope, key indicator numbers turning positive, and that just maybe fears of the next (but much worse, as I read in some outlets) great depression, weren't as likely as previously reported, we found another way to scare the public.

"Let’s hope the numbers start to level off through people being cautious, through our government taking prudent actions to control the spread of this, and that people start to see the results soon – or that the next big news story comes along quickly," he said.

"The good news is that Rocky Mountain Tours Web traffic remains very high and people already are looking to see where the best deals will be for next winter. Some destinations and lodging suppliers are aggressively out there with really attractive offers that skiers and snowboarders will have a tough time passing up. This year, more than ever, we will see the deals drive the destination traffic," he said.

Curtin said people used to call with predetermined thoughts of which destination they wanted to ski and then look for good deals there. Now, he says, the trend we are seeing is people simply calling looking for the best deal and the most value to determine where they’ll go.

No one minimizes the seriousness of the current threat. Curtin and Smith's comments were made Thursday, April 28, and things might look different even as you read this. But, the way the bullets continue to fly, the mountain travel industry better, as Curtin says, be getting exceptionally good at managing these challenges.

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