Mountain resorts must provide more variety

By Bruce Lewis
OF THE PARK RECORD STAFF
April 7, 2001
The future of the mountain resort industry is tied to bringing in those on the periphery, those currently outside, looking in, declared Peter Yesawich, Ph.D., at a Mountain Travel Symposium seminar Thursday.

The president and CEO of Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown, Orlando, Fla., has been studying the travel industry for a number of years. His marketing, advertising and public relations agency counts a number of large vacation destinations as clients.

The number of skier visits is flat it's a zero-sum game. But guess what? When we asked people what they want in a winter vacation, they want to do other things besides skiing or snowboarding, too, he said, listing activities such as taking a ride in a horse-drawn sleigh, ice skating, even riding a bobsled. It's not a ski vacation, it's a winter vacation.

Yesawich spoke for more than an hour about the changing demographics of American vacationers, especially those considered to be affluent, with households either earning more than $100,000 annually or with a total net worth above $500,000.

Read this entire article in The Park Record.