Yesterday I talked about a survey that ROOST did to tease out both interest and insights from the folks in their database / CRM would might consider relocating to the area if certain criteria were met.

One of the reason I like this went as follow:

“The wave of organic interest will fade, but ROOST now has priceless intel to generate their own demand going forward.”

A lot of things have an inflated level of demand. Skiing very much included. There is a group of people who have been interested in skiing, but hadn’t given it a go. They look like normal folks on paper, but this year’s first-timer guests are helping us identify who is who.

Backcountry
Now, backcountry skiing has certainly grown in interest, but it’s also been a tricky thing to balance for some resorts especially in a year like Covid.

• Resorts love to see the interest and engagement in skiing from so many people
• But they also have to be extremely careful about their parking capacity

They want to foster a new way to experience skiing to get folks more hooked on the sport, but they can’t afford to have 200 of these people taking up limited parking at the mountain during a capacity-restricted winter season.

Arapahoe Basin + Bluebird
That’s what I’m seeing and the reason I love this partnership between Bluebird Backcountry – a human-powered ski area in Colorado – and Arapahoe Basin.

Want to #earnyourturns this winter? A-Basin full-season passholders get a discount on day passes at Bluebird Backcountry the ski area with no lifts. Passholders: Check your email for info on how to save on your one-day pass! pic.twitter.com/L8utCu8H2P

— Arapahoe Basin (@Arapahoe_Basin) January 6, 2021

It let’s Arapahoe Basin continue to foster their brand around pure, simple skiing without having to tax their already pushed-to-the-limits parking infrastructure.

• Uphill enthusiasts have a place to learn and grow their skills
• Arapahoe Basin gets a few more passholders or at least stoked current passholders
• Bluebird reinforces their brand as a place to learn and escape crowds when desired
• And, as I mentioned above, both groups get a nice list of folks interested in backcountry skiing to work with going forward

A simple partnership, but a slick one.

Nice work by both teams to make this one happen.

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.