Where’s “Plan B?”

On October 29, I attended the Park City’s Chamber pre-season presentation a forum in which self-congratulations abound. Along with our three local resorts, Deer Valley, Park City and the Canyons, Arnie Weissmann, editor-in-chief at Travel Weekly spoke and express some dire warnings about this year’s snow season. Among other predictions, he said that the economic crisis and higher plane fares are affecting all forms of tourism, and the cruise industry, Las Vegas and eastern ski resorts will make it tough for Park City and the other western resorts. In spite of an admitted decline ranging between 15 to 20% in early bookings as of the end of September, all three resorts and no one in the Chamber’s leadership appeared too worried and what’s worse, there doesn’t seem to be any “Plan B” should the booking situation and visitations keep on deteriorating as the season advances. This to me is denial at its best. We certainly are competing with the cruise business, Las Vegas and other warm destinations, but also against the Vail, Whistler and Lake Tahoe of the world. Why is there no mechanism in place that would declare and promote a roll-back on prices and rates, attractive “specials” on lift tickets and all kinds of creative “product bundling” ideas, should bookings keep on dipping south, in order to steal some clientele from our neighboring destination resorts? Of course, we’ve got too good a product in Park City to even take interconnecting seriously to give our visitors a much better reason to pick us over the rest… I am missing something or has “competition” become a dirty word?