As I mentioned the other day, instead of my usual annual survey, I’m gathering insights on some of the trends that are on my mind through a series of 20-30 one-on-one conversations.

With about 10 of the conversations done, I wanted to share a few things I’ve learned so far.

#1) Nearer to Normal
Almost across the board – from East to West and small to large and red to blue – demand this summer has been closer to normal and resorts and planning on a fairly normal amount of skier demand for the winter of 2021/22.

#2) Other Questions
Instead of Covid questions, marketers are more focused on questions like Apple Mail’s upcoming changes and 3rd party cookies support in browsers. These came up so frequently that I decided to spin up a webinar about this tomorrow. Feel free to register if you’ve been wondering what’s happening on those fronts.
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/9138438478339995408

#3) Few Changes
I’ve been asking a lot about tech but most folks are pretty good with where they are at coming out of Covid. Everyone seems excited and intrigued about some of the new POS options, for example, but not a lot of appetite to make switches anytime soon. After a lot of changes leading into Covid, feels like that trend has slowed.

#4) Semi-Related Concerns
Almost every person I’ve talked to has brought up some nascent concern they’re keeping an eye on. They’re all related tangentially to capacity. For example, one person I talked to worries about skiing becoming like golf where you lose the spontaneity of skiing if we go too far down the road of limited capacity in normal years.

#5) One-on-One is Gold
But the thing I’ve been reminded of the most is the value of 1-on-1 conversations. Not to sell, not to allay concerns, not to do anything but just bounce ideas off each other, jam on what’s happening, and try to figure it out together. Your markets are much bigger than mine, but I hope that won’t cause us all to collectively miss out on the incredible insights these individual chats can provide.

Still Going…
I’ve got a few on my calendar for the next few days, but I’ve still need a dozen or so people to hit the link and grab a time on my calendar. If that sounds good to you, here’s the link. Make it happen:
https://calendly.com/slopefillers/30min

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.