Today, for the first time in a long time, I published a new Tuesday Trends (formerly known at The Stash) post. It was about the Twitter purge.

While I’d love for bandwidth to open up to the point I could get that series going again, I still think often about the data I gathered during that nearly 5-year stretch of weekly posts.

And in a week like this when I’ve got lodging on the brain, one of those nearly 250 data points comes to mind again and again and again.

The crux is in that x-axis. What “years” are referred to here? In the words of the original post:

“If I came to your resort last year, but didn’t come the year before, how likely am I to return compared to someone that did make the trip both years? What about someone who comes 3 years in a row? Or 4, 5, or 6?”

In other words, those numbers represent annual vacation traditions or streaks.

The Angle
In marketing, we sometimes sacrifice a little revenue up front to encourage the more valuable behaviors that come along for the ride.

• We may discount lift tickets to snag lodging revenue.
• We may discount lodging rates to encourage longer stays.
• We may discount food to snag a higher lift ticket rates.
• We may discount season passes to get people to commit sooner.

The one thing I haven’t seen, however, is taking a hit on something to encourage traditions. To get those people who came last year to come this year or the people who have come the 2 out of the last 2 to make that 3 for 3.

I think the most intriguing group are the guests who came last season but not the year before. Not only is that the largest group, but notice how big the gap is between those first two bars.

If you can get people who came in 2017/18 to come in 2018/19, the odds of them coming back in 2019/20 increase nearly 3x.

Design for It
I think the place my brain keeps coming to with this data point is not just hoping for this to happen, but designing for it.

Talking to this group differently, building strategy specifically for them, speaking to them in terms of traditions and memories and giving them extra reason to return and return and return.

Because once you get them to start the streak, the data suggest that they’ll keep it going.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.