2010 Annual Report

Ski New Mexico

Annual Report

June, 2010

Along with some of the individual resorts improvements, Red River new triple chair lift, Ski Apache extension of snow making to top of Mtn., a new conveyor carpet at Ski Santa Fe, two new trails at TSV, night skiing with entertainment at Angel Fire, new terrain park at Sandia Peak, and phase one of a new snow making system at Pajarito, Ski New Mexico made some progress as well. 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 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 2009-2010. The total skier visits in New Mexico were 964,933 compared to 795,416 in 2008-2009 (23% increase). This is the most skier visits recorded since the 2000-2001 season. The good amount and timely snow fall was the major reason for the outstanding numbers, however Ski Apache doubling their skier visits (because they had snow) and marketing efforts played a part in the success.

The difficult economic situation in the USA provided challenges and opportunities. New Mexico has again 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. March (spring break) was huge this year at all resorts and helped boost the skier visit numbers. Almost every resort saw some type of growth.

Our success for the year can be attributed to good and timely snow fall, the economic climate, and the efforts of the ski resorts, Ski NM and the New Mexico Tourism Department. These efforts produced huge visibility for the ski industry and did and will continue to bring skiers to NM. The new look “Slopes” magazine in its second year , KOAT TV Kids learn to ski program, the Geiger Media tour, the Oklahoma & Texas State Fair project, the new web cam program, and the launch of our new web site are a few of the very successful projects. 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, the “gold” card program and legislative affairs efforts.

On the financial front Ski NM will carry forward approx. $28,680.00 in the checking account and just over $31,000 in the savings account. The cash in the operating account will be available in case anticipated NMTD moneys are not received for the 2010-2011 budget plus some of the funds are budgeted to balance the 2010-2011 budget. I believe we are in solid finical conditions going into the next budget year.

Outline of Ski New Mexico

2009-2010 projects

Advertising – Promotions – Public Relations – Membership

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

Oklahoma, Texas & NM State Fair project. Partnership NMTD ---attend fairs & distribute Slopes and individual resort materials
Attended and distributed information at the NM Snow Show.
Around 505 Magazine—SNM advertiser in winter publication 25,000 distribution
Enchantment Card—purchased and distributed 5000 “ NMTD Enchantment cards

Media tours

Ski NM, Region V, TSV, Red River, Ski Santa Fe, and Angel Fire--- 5 day --25 journalist--four resort tour. First class operation. Region V of NMTD paid $5,000
NMTD/ Balantines FAM tour (Feb. Ski Santa Fe, Taos) 3 person individual tour

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 1000 kids from Jan.3—Jan. 31the length of program.

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)
Governor Bill Richardson issue a proclamation making January 2010 “Learn a winter Sports Month” in the state of New Mexico.

Funding requests for the year of 2010-2011 from the NMTD.

Co-op Proposal has been submitted 6/10/2010 to the NMTD for co-op funds for the 2010-2011 year. Our request is for $20,000 which is the max allowable give our category. Last year we received $13,975.00.
Proposal has been submitted to the Sports Hall of Fame for $5,000 for sponsorship for the Ski Hall of Fame banquet. Last year we received $4,000 and gave Ski Hall of Fame $1,000.

Ski-New Mexico Tourism Department Web Cam program

This program was designed and implemented due to sponsorship/advertising from the New Mexico Tourism Department. It is in its second year.
Seven web cams in service (Ski Santa Fe, Angel Fire, Taos Ski Valley, Ski Apache, Pajarito, Sandia Peak, and Sipapu). These cameras were available on the Ski resorts’ home page, Ski NM home page, NMTD web site, 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 2010-2011
A new host site and streaming system was developed with Brown Rice. This relationship proved to be extremely useful and valuable. Lots of positive changes.

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)
Ski New Mexico new web site redesigned was launched on October 25,2009

The New site was redesigned given a fresh look, and more content to the site.
Also new on the site was the Web Cam pages.
Unique visitors to the site increased by 15% total visitors up 58% and page views up 727%
NMTD is a partner on the web site which is linked directly to NMDT

Public Relations

Print and distribute Ski NM Gold passes (Nov. 2009)
Print and distribute Ski NM VIP-Legislative passes (Jan.20, 2010)
Helmet Issue- designed, produced and distributed posters to all resorts
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.

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.2010 at the Red River Ski area. Over 75 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 Oct. 31st at the Sheraton up-town 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. The event was sponsored in part by the “NM Sports Authority”
Ski NM continues to recognize the “Best of the Best” of the NM ski industry in five different categories.
Finalize the Standard Operating Procedures for Ski New Mexico