Changing With The Times

Fred Blume has a run a trip for several years with the Pensacola Ski Club. The process had been to put the trip together in the spring, pay a deposit for the group and then start selling the trip during the summer. For his next trip to Vail, Feb 2 - 9, 2008, he decided to take advantage of an airfare of $235 from Pensacola to Denver on Delta Air Lines, which was about 40% less than the going rate for this market. The only catch was that the tickets had to be issued within 30 days of making the reservation on Delta. He sent out an e-mail to all of the past participants on his recent trips on May 1st. By the 2nd, he had 16 people signed up for his trip.

The market for participants for leisure ski groups, as well as skiers to destination resorts in general, is relatively static. It's neither growing or shrinking much. To succeed, a trip needs to keep its share of the market. To do that, one has to move quickly and stay ahead of the competition. As soon as Fred got the final deal together, he started promoting it to his people. The immediate results were very positive. He's well on his way to his goal of filling up the trip with 42 people.