Villages have trickle-up effect on ski resorts

Vermont Business Magazine, Mar 01, 2002 by Barna, Ed

When veterans of the 10th Mountain Division, alonwith other entrepreneurs, started turning mountaintop, into ski areas after World War II, many Vermonters down in the valleys wondered how the state could be improved by a few wellheeled winter sports enthusiasts taking over their beloved mountains.

Two generations later, with tourism a major sector of the state's economy and the ski-tourist population rivaling that of the host state, that question is being answered. As ski areas turned into ski resorts serving families rather than individual skiers, the uplands are increasingly being integrated with other aspects of Vermont tourism and Vermont life.

It happens in old, established and obvious ways like setting up racks of brochures where visitors are likely to see them. It happens tangibly through weekly and monthly publications that have found readership and advertisers in resort areas, and invisibly and electronically through links on the Web sites whose online cameras let city dwellers know it doesn't have to be snowing down there for it to be snowing up here.

It occurs openly and enthusiastically with the car shows, craft fairs, and other major events that resorts sponsor in the offseason. It takes place subliminally, for instance when someone books the Trout Room at an inn and begins to realize the implications of so many mountains having so many brooks coming off of them.

Chambers of commerce and regional marketing organizations are working to integrate their marketing approaches, often with great sophistication. And recently, state agencies have been cooperating as never before, with each other and with the private sector.

The realization has taken hold that Vermont will never stop competing with other destinations, and will never have the financial resources to match the advertising budgets of larger states and provinces. But just as in the efforts of economic development agencies trying to attract businesses or business personnel, Vermont's unique quality of life is seen as a unique countervailing advantage.

In the same way that companies seek name recognition for their products, leaders in the travel and tourism world are marketing Vermont almost as if it were a brand. A visitor does not come these days to ski the snow, the slopes, the ski area, or even the resort but, as bumper stickers put it, to SKI VERMONT

Or the maple syrup can come to them

David Dillon, the executive director of the Vermont Ski Areas Association, can be a hard man to reach. A goodly part of his job involves traveling, as part of a collaborative Vermont road show. Think Central Park in New York City, or the South Florida Fair in Palm Beach. Now think of a maple sugar house set up there.

It's a portable unit that gets set up in all sorts of places, Dillon said. Along with that and the information about Vermont's alpine and nordic skiing opportunities, companies like Cabot Cheese and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters provide samples, and the Department of Agriculture makes people aware of the many small specialty foods producers around the state.

"It gives us an opportunity to show what Vermont is all about," Dillon said.

Tom Harty, the Deputy Commissioner of Agriculture, recalled one Central Park visitor who tried Cabot cheese, had a reaction similar to that of the judges at the many competitions Cabot has won, and then bemoaned what he thought was the fact that, "I can't buy it here in New York City." Replied Harty, "Yes, you can," pointing out the Citarella's and Zabar's, two Big Apple gourment food, chains, had shops within walking distance.

The South Florida Fair is a huge opportunity, Harty said .the third largest agricultural fair in the country." During their stay, "750,000 people went came through the part we were in."

Closer to home, the Harty band of promoters can be found offering free samples of Vermont edibles and comestibles at the ski resorts themselves. Said Harty, "We get them coming and going."

Whether or not the World Trade Center attack will increase New York City's interest in Vermont, Dillon could not speculate.

"Vermont's always had an attraction for people who live in cities," he said. At least one Vermont credit union official believes such a surge of interest has taken place, based on mortgage lending experience (see separate story on credit unions in Banking Section).

The Vermont Ski Areas Association has been around since the mid '60s, Dillon said. Currently, there are 16 members from the downhill skiing areas and resorts, 30 cross-country areas, and about a hundred associate members.

They have produced a promotional video, which along with the skiing information lets viewers know about other resources near the areas (heritage tourists will notice the covered bridge, gift-seekers get a glimpse of a village area, and so on). And there is the Web site.

"We redesigned it last year," Dillon said. "We're redesigning it this year," as part of an effort to continually upgrade it.

The new philosophy, Dillon said, is "an effort to promote what the stale has off the mountain as well as on the mountain." He added, "We've just really tried to take it to a new level because we believe it's so important."