Offering a discount to the passholders of…ahem…certain “other” mountains was a solid strategy this past year that a handful of mountains dusted off and reminded folks about before busy holiday weekends.

But as we look forward to next season, there are likely tens or hundreds of thousands of skiers who are shopping. One comment section from a single resort announcing Epic Pass sales is enough of a reminder of that.

If there was ever a year to be a bit more direct in trying to get folks to switch, this might be it.

And that’s exactly what the Indy Pass did.

Indy Switch

The name is direct and clear:

“The Indy Switch“

The copy is direct and clear:

“The Indy Switch Pass provides an incentive for mega-pass holders to switch to a less crowded, more affordable, and authentic mountain experience. A true ski experience that’s not about massive lift lines, $25 hamburgers, and $12 beers.”

The offer is enough to catch folks’ eye but not enough to spoil it for others:

“That’s why, through May 17th, Epic, Ikon, and Mountain Collective Passholders can purchase a 22/23 Indy Switch Pass for just $259 for adults and $109 for kids. Or, they can get an Indy+ Pass (no blackout days) for $359 for adults or $159 for kids. That’s a savings of $20 on adult passes and $10 on kids passes!”

They wanted to give those skiers something to think about, so that’s exactly what they did.

"Anyone with an Epic, Ikon, or Mountain Collective pass can buy an Indy Switch Pass for $259 by uploading a receipt from their current pass." Umm, this is genius. #supportlocalhttps://t.co/1wethxLS6c

— alisha (@babygotbckcntry) March 2, 2022

The Pie

For a number of years, Vail’s focus has primarily been on increasing market share rather than growing the pie. That’s not to say they’ve done nothing in that regard, they have, but even their feeder resorts have pivoted away from a model built around growing skiers and focused on growing pass sales.

As their slices of the pie now leave a bad taste in many skiers’ mouths and those folks start looking at other flavors, I think offers like this are absolutely worth a shot.

Will it work?

Like I often say, there’s only one way to find out.

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.