The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
The funds were earmarked for air marketing, ticket buy-downs
By Katherine Nettles
Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) will not be using an admissions tax grant of $70,000 awarded to it by Mt. Crested Butte for air marketing and ticket buy-downs for the 2018/2019 ski season.
The $70,000 was awarded to the resort to use in two ways: $50,000 was for airline marketing campaigns, and $20,000 was for airline ticket buy-down coupons used as a buyer incentive for travel through Gunnison airport. Vail Resorts reported to the Town Council that it does not want to make use of the grant funds because it did not have enough time after its late fall purchase of CBMR to organize the use of the money. Although the money had already been transferred to CBMR, Vail Resorts will be returning it in full.
CBMR issued a statement that while the resort appreciates the generous grant, “Given the integration of CBMR into Vail Resorts, we do not believe we can deliver the originally expected return on investment for this campaign and hope to provide a thoughtful, detailed marketing grant request next fall for the 2019-20 winter season that will benefit both the resort and the entire community.”
Mt. Crested Butte council member Janet Farmer responded to the news by stating, “I am thrilled that we have not supported those buy-downs.”
In the meantime, CBMR confirmed the resort would still be using the other grants the town had allocated to it for promoting and supporting Military Appreciation Month, Crested Butte Unplugged and SkiTown Breakdown.
