2009 Annual Report

Ski New Mexico

Annual Report

May, 2009

The primary objective of Ski New Mexico Inc. is to increase the number of skier visits in the state of New Mexico. This is a complex goal with many issues are beyond the control of the organization. Also many programs started today will not pay dividends for a few years. None the less, Ski NM was successful again in 2008-2009. The total skier visits in New Mexico were 795,416 compared to 806,147 in 2007-2008. This is a huge success (less than 1% down) given our neighbors in the west experienced significant losses in skier visits. Nationally we saw a 5.5% down turn over the 2007-08 ski season and Colorado, Wyoming, Utah contributed significantly to those numbers.

The difficult economic situation in the USA provided challenges and opportunities. New Mexico jumped on the opportunities and kept more New Mexico skiers close to home and captured more of the Texas and Oklahoma drive market. Destination skiers who normally might fly to Colorado or Utah drove to New Mexico. The New Mexico resorts saw strong holiday and weekend business but smaller than usual week day numbers. Early snow fall in late Nov. and Dec. 2008-09 helped show a 15% increase over the previous year (Christmas vacation), but then the lack of snow in Jan. Feb, & March hurt our overall skier visits for the year.

Much of our success for the year can be attributed to the economic climate and the efforts of the ski resorts, Ski NM and the New Mexico Tourism Department. Several Ski NM programs were a joint effort with or sponsored by the NM Department Tourism. These programs produced huge visibility for the ski industry and the State of NM and did and will continue to bring skiers to NM. The new look “Slopes” magazine (SNM winter adventure guide), KOAT TV Kids learn to ski program, the NMDT ski Fam tour, the Oklahoma & Texas State Fair project, and the NEW “Ski New Mexico Tourism Department” web cam program are a few of the very successful projects that the NM Tourism Department jointed Ski NM. These projects are outlined in more detail as attachments to this report.
Several other smaller projects were completed which had a lesser impact on the numbers but will continue to provide for a stronger foundation for the organization in the future. Examples are: expanding the membership base, develop membership activities, develop programs for the future and a redesign and launch of the NEW web site.

Outline of Ski New Mexico

2008-09 projects

Advertising –Promotions-Public Relations- Membership

I. Slopes Magazine (NM ski industry travel guide) partnership with NM Tourism Department
80,000 pieces designed, printed and distributed national and internationally

NMTD had a page advertising in Magazine

II. Other projects

Oklahoma & Texas State Fair project. Partnership NMTD ---attend fairs & distribute (5000 discount flyers) just over 500 were redeemed
TV- 13 Ski Report give-a-way package (4 lift tickets during each Thu. night ski report---18 weeks)
KRSN Radio ski report twice a week for 13 weeks
Project Vertical--- Ski NM was a sponsor of 101.5 Radio rebranding campaign
Around 505 Magazine—SNM advertiser in winter publication 25,000 distribution

III. Press (FAM) tours

Ski NM/Ski Apache press day- 25 media attended a one day ski-day at Ski Apache Jan 11 (TV media from Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico)
NMTD FAM tour (Jan. 13-17 Ski Santa Fe, Angel Fire, Red River, Taos) 6 print and web media people
Go-West Summit a NMTD event (250 international travel wholesalers) one night one day event which Ski NM was present

IV. KOAT KIDS Learn to ski and ride program.

Ski resorts provided lifts-lessons-rentals for $30.00 Program was promoted on TV-7 starting end of Dec. through last week of Jan. at news time. We taught just over 900 kids.
Running in conjunction with the KOAT program was the national “Learn a winter sport” month. This had its own web site, SNM had a landing page, and it was supported by 18 full page ads in 9 national publications (i.e. Ski, Skiing, Transworld Snow board, Family Circle; to note a few)

V. Ski-New Mexico Tourism Department Web Cam program

This program was designed and implemented only due to sponsorship/advertising from the New Mexico Tourism Department.
Seven web cams were purchased and four were put into service (Ski Santa Fe, Angel Fire, Taos Ski Valley, and Sipapu). These cameras were available on the Ski resorts’ home page, Ski NM home page, and TV-13 & Fox 2’s home pages and also shown at news time on both TV-13 &Fox 2 weather and general news programs throughout the winter.
TV-13 and Fox 2 signed an exclusive agreement with Ski NM to be the sole sources for this video contend for their news programming. Plans are underway to offer such exclusive arrangements with several Texas and Oklahoma markets for 2009-2010.

VI. Press releases (write or redirect ski industry press releases) averaged about one a week emailed to an extensive list of media outlets (about 600 contacts)

VII. Ski New Mexico has its web site redesigned in October and November

New to the site was a new booking engine (Southwest Vacation), and on-line apparel store (Graphic Connection).
Also new the site was the Web Cam program.
Unique visitors to the site increased by 30% to 250,00
NMTD is a partner on the web site which is linked directly to NMDT

VIII. Public Relations

Print and distribute Ski NM Gold passes (Nov. 2008)
Print and distribute Ski NM VIP-Legislative passes (Feb. 2, 2009)
Work with Senator Bill Payne on Senate bill 388- provide via NMTD $50,000 to SNM. The bill was not considered due to the bad budget year.
Helmet Issue- Proactive compromise with Senator Eric Griego to get helmets for rent at every alpine ski resort in NM.
Continue a working relationship with other tourism and industry trade organizations
(TANM, NMTD Region V, NMDT, NM lodgers Assoc, NMRA, etc)
NM Rail Runner/Santa Fe Public Transportation Authority---trying to get city bus transportation between city of SF and Ski Santa Fe and try to get a “Ski Train” on Sundays from Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

IX. Ski New Mexico membership issues

Winter community tourism seminar. Conducted in conjunctions with Red River ski area, Red River chamber of commerce, and Dr. Eddie Dry in Jan.2009 at the Red River Ski area. Over 150 people attended the two hour seminar.
Ski NM/NM Ski Hall of Fame banquet. In conjunction with the NMSHF Ski NM conducted an awards banquet and induction ceremony Nov.1st at the Hyatt Hotel in Alb. 250 people attended the function and NM Tourism Director Mike Cerletti was the master of ceremonies. Ski NM’s Best of the Best were recognized and 5 people were inducted into the NM Ski Hall of Fame.
Ski NM continues to recognize the “Best of the Best” of the NM ski industry in five different categories.
Ski NM had a student intern from Marshall University, Erica Duffield who assumed the role of Director of Marketing and Public relations. She worked on several programs which will be put in place next year: Photo contest, a Feb. press tour, and a fast food/promo program.

Ski New Mexico 2008-2009 Season

I. Our skier visits for 2008-09 are *795,416 (down 1% from 2007-08)

II. Trickle down economic impact to State of NM #

A. Economic impact is $480 million
B. GRT to state of NM $31.2 million

III. Direct economic impact to State of NM

A. Gross lift ticket sales = $ 44 million
B. GRT on lift tickets only = $3.1 million
C. Initial $ spent 65% out of state/ 35% in state = $120 million
D. GRT on initial spending = $7.8 million