For the week of January 21 - 27, 2004

Chamber to promote good skiing, flights

---

"I think it’s an opportunity lost if we don’t move now."

— ANN AGNEW, Sun Valley City Council member

---

By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer

Taking advantage of Sun Valley’s current good snow conditions and the availability of direct airlines flights from Los Angeles and Oakland to Hailey, the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau plans to spend $40,000 next month to sell both the resort and its ease of access for California residents.

The chamber obtained a $20,000 commitment from the city of Sun Valley to fund half the expected cost. Chamber Executive Director Carol Waller said she will make a pitch Feb. 2 to the city of Ketchum for an additional $20,000.

"I think it’s an opportunity lost if we don’t move now," Sun Valley City Council member Ann Agnew said during a council meeting Thursday.

The chamber plans to spend $15,000 on quarter-page ads in suburban newspapers around San Francisco and Los Angeles, and $8,500 on a full-page ad in the February issue of Horizon/Alaska Air magazine. It also plans to spend $10,000 to advertise summer air service from Los Angeles, if that service continues into the summer.

The chamber would also like to recoup $1,500 it spent on a promotional presentation that marketing coordinator Heather Gillespie made to about 100 skiers at a ski shop in Walnut Creek, Calif., last week.

Sun Valley has already contributed $308,000 to the chamber for the current fiscal year. Ketchum has contributed $369,700. Waller characterized the current funding requests as "supplemental," pointing out that the Oakland flights had not yet been solidified when the chamber did its 2004 budget last July.

The daily flights from Los Angeles debuted on Dec. 15, 2002, backed for one year by a $600,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to support air service to small communities. All that money was spent to help offset Horizon Air’s loss on the route. According to Sun Valley Co. Marketing Director Jack Sibbach, that amounted to about $894,000.

Though the grant has expired, the service has continued through a commitment by the Sun Valley Co. to guarantee Horizon Air a slight profit on the route through March 28.

Daily flights from Oakland began Dec. 18, 2003, also guaranteed by Sun Valley Co., and will also run through the winter.

Sibbach said Sun Valley Co.’s commitment is capped at $300,000 for each route.

Talks are ongoing between the airline and Sun Valley Co. about continuing the service during the summer. However, Pat Zachwieja, Horizon Air’s vice president for marketing and planning, said that is unlikely to occur since the planes can be put to better use in other markets. Waller said that if the service is not continued, the chamber will refund to the cities of Sun Valley and Ketchum the $10,000 it hopes to spend on promoting summer flights.

Zachwieja said passenger numbers for the L.A. route during December 2003 are up slightly from those of the previous December, and are expected to show a profit. He said numbers for the Oakland route show a similar trend.

"We’re pretty happy with what we’re seeing right now," he said. "We’re probably going to hover around the break-even point for the whole winter."

Zachwieja said that even if the routes do not become independently profitable, and must continue to be subsidized by Sun Valley Co., they will be beneficial to both Horizon Air and Sun Valley Co.—Horizon is guaranteed a profit and Sun Valley attracts more visitors.

Waller told the Sun Valley City Council that 30 percent of the passengers on the flights are first-time visitors to the area. She said repeat visits by those passengers should ensure that money spent promoting the flights pays off in both the short and long terms.

Similar arrangements with air carriers have been made by other Rocky Mountain resorts, including at least four in Colorado.

"We have to fight tooth and nail to keep our market," Sibbach told the city council Thursday. "We have to do more and more to keep what we have."

 

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.