TA made some strides last winter

Mt. CB support leads to “bright spots” in promotions

By Alissa Johnson

The challenge for the Gunnison-Crested Butte Tourism Association is well known: Summer is going well, and winter is more difficult when it comes to generating growth. But interactive marketing manager Laurel Runcie sees some bright spots in the picture, and she credits the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council with helping make them happen.

In an update to the council this summer, Runcie told councilmembers, “Summer went great last summer, and winter was more difficult, but the bright spots in our programming were all supported by Mt. Crested Butte funds. The work we did with your support was really big,” she said.

For the 2015-2016 ski season, Mt. Crested Butte awarded the TA $50,000 to help market the winter air program, $15,000 to film a Warren Miller video segment, and $20,000 to support the creation of a central reservations system. The funds were awarded through the town’s Admissions Tax Marketing Funds Grant Program.

Overall, the TA had set a goal of growing occupancy faster than its competitive set, which includes 18 mountain valleys, and ensuring a 70 percent load factor or higher for flights supported by a revenue guarantee from the Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority—payments that go directly to airlines depending on how well a flight performs.

While there was some growth in occupancy in February, overall the Gunnison Valley fell back compared to its competitive set. Still, Runcie saw some successes during the winter, the most significant of which was the launch of an in-house travel agency, Gunnison Crested Butte Reservations.

“We exceeded our seasonal gross revenue goal by about 10 percent, so that was pretty phenomenal for a first-year program,” Runcie said. “We expected to lose $40,000 in our first year, and we only lost $20,400, so that was pretty fantastic.”

Runcie noted that those reservations generated $110,336 in room night revenues, and 72 percent of that revenue went to the north end of the valley. In addition, Gunnison Crested Butte Reservations sold 336 airline tickets, and 69 percent of air passengers booked lodging in the north, the majority of them staying in Mt. Crested Butte lodging.

Out of $362,771 in gross revenues, Runcie calculated that visitors spent approximately $15,560 on ski and snowboard rentals, $10,025 on ski lessons at Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) and $70,176 on lift tickets.

What stood out to Runcie the most about winter marketing efforts was that the TA and the in-house travel agency were far better at selling Crested Butte than outside entities. The TA partnered on special offers with Expedia.com and Ski.com, and they sold only 21 and 29 reservations, respectively.

“We’re convinced that [Gunnison Crested Butte Reservations] is necessary for the valley and to support the lodging community, so we will continue to subsidize it through LMD [Local Marketing District] funding as long as we need to,” Runcie said.

Runcie also told the council that the TA had gone through a brand building effort in Los Angeles, which became a new market after Alaska Airlines began to fly direct from L.A. to Gunnison. The TA produced a four-part video series that has more than 85,000 views on Facebook and another 7,000 on YouTube.

“We own those assets and will use them next winter. We are definitely targeting the more extreme demographic. We think that’s a real growth opportunity for us and we’re really targeting millennials,” Runcie said.

Millennials, Runcie noted, don’t plan ahead and often have to work during December, while their older and more established colleagues take time off. Looking ahead to next winter, that demographic could help boost January tourism. Runcie expects the video series to expand to Houston, Dallas and Chicago next year.

Finally, a Warren Miller video segment that featured skiing and fat biking also created some buzz and helped secure Fat Bike World Championships sponsor Borealis. “The real payoff from that will be in 2017. We’ll go on tour with CBMR and be part of the Warren Miller world tour,” Runcie said.

“Winters are tough, we all know that,” Runcie concluded, “But we learned a lot this past winter and we’re excited.”

Runcie noted that Mt. Crested Butte’s support of summer programs had been instrumental as well.

“You helped us launch a signage program last summer and this year we received $50,000 in funding from Colorado Parks and Wildlife that matches $60,000 from the LMD and the town of Crested Butte. We are putting in $110,000 worth of signs this summer. You helped us start that with the pilot program last year and it’s taken off,” she said.

On July 8, TA executive director John Norton told the Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority that summer is looking good, and as far as summer flights, both Houston and Denver flights are filling up.

“We are talking about needs for winter,” he said. “And we are looking at Los Angeles with the Air Command and CBMR and coming to Mt. Crested Butte with a major, major program to promote the Alaska Air L.A service.

“We hope to crush that this year and expand the amount of flight days in the future,” he continued. “We think this is the year of L.A. and a year from now we will have a strong Alaska Air program in 2017-18 coming into the valley.”

Runcie told the Crested Butte News that support from local entities like Mt. Crested Butte and partnerships with entities like CBMR have been a big part of the TA’s recent successes. She credited CBMR with making Gunnison Crested Butte Reservations possible by allowing the TA to use their existing phone system—a high-cost, sophisticated system that allows phone numbers to be customized for the promotion. But the TA also partners with groups such as the RTA and the Gunnison/Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce.

“We’re a really small valley competing with much bigger ski resorts so it just makes sense for all of us to pool our resources,” she said.

Norton believes that kind of partnership goes one step further, supporting a broad spectrum of local entities. For example, “We met with the Nordic Council director and said ‘What can we do to help you?’ I guess the TA had never asked that question before.”

While the TA had promoted Nordic skiing, that conversation prompted the TA to change its support from advertising to offering prize money for the Alley Loop ski race. The TA also worked shoulder to shoulder with the Chamber on the Fat Bike World Championships and has supported events such as the Growler bike race.

For its part, the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council seemed appreciative of the TA’s efforts. Councilmember David O’Reilly credited the TA with getting creative, helping summer be great and winter improve.

Runcie responded, “I’d like it to be summer great and winter is great. That’s what we’re shooting for.”