Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Chamber gets

Efforts made to promote valley during economic slump


By JON DUVAL
Express Staff Writer

The Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau’s latest ad, created by Boise-based advertising agency Drake Cooper, was in the October edition of Ski magazine and is clearly targeting a younger audience. Courtesy graphic.

"In tough times, we just try to be out there as much as possible."

That's the approach being taken by the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau for the upcoming months, according to Carrie Westergard, the organization's marketing director.

While it's been widely reported that the slumping economy will reduce travel, the chamber is looking to its "Hot Deals. Cool Town" promotional campaign to ease the potential crunch.

It comes in addition to the chamber's newest advertisement, created by Boise-based advertising agency Drake Cooper and differing greatly from last year's much-criticized "Friedlpfeiffer" campaign. The collage-like ad features, among other things, a snowboarder with wings, a deer in a hot tub, and two bottles of beer riding a chairlift.

Westergard said the chamber's Web site, as well as newsletters and advertisements, is being used to "aggressively" market vacations in Sun Valley and Ketchum.

The Web site highlights a number of special early-season offers, including a link to Sun Valley Co. for a night's stay and day of skiing starting at $72 per person from opening until Dec. 18.

"We like to be optimistic, but we have been in touch with the lodging owners and everyone is concerned," Westergard said. "In a perfect world, we would like our numbers to go up or at least stay flat."

Westergard said the chamber, Sun Valley Co. and other community organizations have budgeted about $400,000 to market non-stop air service from Los Angeles, Seattle and Salt Lake City to Friedman Memorial Airport.

"The lodging is really reasonable and the whole package is attractive," Westergard said. "This is why the non-stop flights are so important. People are very price-conscious right now and we have to be competitive."

In an effort to bring in guests outside of the peak vacation times, flights will be offered for $318 round-trip from Seattle and $334 from Los Angeles in non-holiday weeks throughout the winter. To that end, the flights will be advertised in the Seattle Times and Los Angeles Times newspapers.

Sun Valley Director of Marketing Jack Sibbach echoed the importance of these flights, saying that the resort, along with the Fly Sun Valley Alliance, once again partnered with Horizon to provide the non-stop flights from Los Angeles. The agreement includes a minimum revenue guarantee to help defray some of the airline's risk in providing service to the Hailey airport.

However, the guarantee was not enough to keep a similar flight to Oakland, which had been in service for the past four winters, but was cancelled because the airline did not have enough planes, Sibbach said.

"The accessibility issue is getting harder for us," he said.

Sibbach said that return groups, such as conventions or ski clubs, are the resort's "bread and butter," but that bidding for these groups is becoming more difficult.

"Our skiing and accommodations are often much cheaper, but the airfare makes it more expensive," he said.

As a result, Sibbach said, advance bookings for this winter are a "couple percentage points" down from previous years.

However, the resort hopes to counter that with new twice-daily bus service between the Sun Valley Inn and the Boise Airport, running from Dec. 19 through March 30. The buses will depart the inn at 7:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. and return from the airport at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Even at $50 per one-way ticket, Sibbach said, the service would probably lose money in its inaugural season, but will be a necessary amenity.

"We went after this because we think Boise will become an increasingly important hub as we get less air service into Sun Valley and the prices remain high," he said.

Another first for this season is the introduction of "Mid-Week Madness" packages aimed at attracting regional travelers during typically slow days, with one night at the resort and a day of skiing for $109 per person.

However, Sibbach said he's remaining "cautiously optimistic" and that every winter depends on Mother Nature regardless of what the economy is doing.

"Skiers will ski here if we have snow. That's always critical," he said.




 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.