Summer has come and gone, and the ski season is again on the horizon. Season pass sales, movie premieres, sniagrab, and ski rex are all in full force, getting everyone excited about the fluffy white stuff. We at BrainSpark are like the majority of our Colorado cohorts and cannot wait to get out on the mountain. In light of the upcoming season, we wanted to highlight a few new technology changes happening in Colorado ski resorts.
A-Basin Mobile Site
With the smartphone market penetration projected to be at over 50% by mid-2011 (Nielsen), many companies have begun to realize the need for phone-friendly websites. This observation can be seen throughout the ski resort industry as well. Last year, Arapahoe Basin launched a mobile site that allows skiers to check snow conditions, webcams, runs open, and various other necessities when en-route to the mountains. The site has a very simple layout, making it easy to use whether you have an iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc. Since launch, the site has been heavily utilized, and has been given rave reviews by skiers and riders using it on the way to the mountain, on the slopes, or just around town. Check it out at http://arapahoebasin.com/abasin/mobile/.The site was designed and built by BrainSpark Media.
A-Basin daily groomed runs map/report
Last year, Arapahoe Basin launched a groomed runs map system developed by BrainSpark that made grooming notification more efficient and effective both online and on the mountain. The system operates by allowing the ski patrol to simply check boxes that correspond with groomed/opened runs and an overlay is automatically created. A pdf of the trail map with the groomed runs shown with an overlay is produced. The system also posts the current date, snowfall, conditions, forecast, lifts open, acres open, and a comments area for the ski patrol or mountain manager to add as needed. This pdf is posted to the A-basin website automatically, and allows the ski patrol to print off the map and post around the mountain, or local ski shops to post in the shop. The system is currently being used by Arapahoe Basin, with great results. Once the mountain opens and grooming begins, you can see the system in action at http://www.arapahoebasin.com/Abasin/reports/abasin-groomed-runs.pdf.
Radio-Frequency Technology
In the 08-09 season, Vail Resorts implemented RFID (radio-frequency identification) into their season pass system. For the average skier, the benefit of having a RF tag on your pass is that it allows for the resort employees to scan your pass through your outerwear, but there is much more that happens behind the scenes. At lifts that do not have employees scanning the RFID passes, there is a passive RFID scanner overhead as you board the chair. The data collected from your season pass include what lifts you use, when you use them, and any spending activity if you use your peaks rewards account when making transactions. This allows the resorts to analyze different traffic patterns on the mountain. For example, the resort may look at what time of day certain people use certain lifts, what weather conditions attract certain people to the slopes, or relationships between spending amounts and lift use. These relationships allow the resorts to make critical decisions such as installing a new lift to facilitate increased demand, and implementing effective marketing strategies. The more these resorts know about their customers, the better experience they can provide for them.
Further utilizing the RFID technology implemented in Vail Resorts’ season passes, the Company has developed a new offering called EpicMIX. This product name plays off their most popular season pass offering, the Epic Pass. Debuting at Keystone on November 11, 2010, EpicMIX is essentially an RFID driven geo-networking site. By creating a profile online, your activity on the hill can be tracked via the RFID scanners at each lift. The profile can be linked to the skier’s facebook and twitter accounts, letting friends know if you have earned pins. EpicMIX pins are the virtual counterpart of the longtime popular ski resort pins from the past. Pins can be earned by covering a certain amount of vertical feet, skiing or riding at night a certain number of times, spending a certain amount of days in a year at a mountain, riding the same lift a certain number of times, or riding every lift on the mountain. The offering includes a mobile application, allowing skiers to see their progress on the slopes.
RFID has made resorts smarter, more efficient, and more effective in their business practices. It has also allowed them to implement new value-added offerings such as EpicMIX. In time, it can be assumed the more and more resorts will begin using the RFID technology to compete with the major resorts that have already made the investment.
Technology is continuously being integrated into the business operations of ski resorts. There are endless ways to make a ski resort more efficient using new technology, as well as making marketing efforts more effective. If you have a creative idea for a resort or would like to discuss implementing a new technology into your resort, give BrainSpark a holler! We’d love to hear from you.
