“TRANSITIONING MORE PRODUCTS ONTO OUR E-COMMERCE PLATFORM HAS DRASTICALLY IMPROVED GUEST FLOW AND STREAMLINED STAFF WORKDAYS.”
Current challenges. The invest- ment priorities line up with what respondents said is hardest today. In an open-ended question about the biggest technology challenges they face, inte- gration/data flow was the most common theme, with approximately a quarter of respondents to the question citing it. “We’re working with a disjointed sys- tem of F&B, spa, mountain, and lodging that don’t talk to one another, limiting our ability to provide a comprehensive experience—and comprehensive CRM,” said one respondent from a medi- um-sized ski area. Respondents used the term “integra- tion” to mean different things depending on their environment and the nature of their operation. Some referred to the flow of data from point-of-sale systems to e-commerce, while others identified a broader need for ticketing, lessons, rent- als, F&B and other departments to all share the same customer view. Some talked about analytics as a downstream of integration: “We collect significant amounts of operational data … yet there is no unified system that inte- grates across the resort to keep and ana- lyze this data,” a respondent from a large ski area said. Other consistent challenges high- lighted in the open-ended comments include cost, organizational alignment,
change management, connectivity, and pace of change. Small ski areas that responded to the question about biggest tech challenges more frequently cited connectivity and infrastructure as obstacles, followed by cost, while large ski areas were more likely to focus on integration/data flow. MEASURABLE WINS While there are constraints, surveyed ski areas have had many tech implementa- tion wins. Most respondents were able to describe a technology investment or investments that led to measurable improvements in efficiency, safety, or guest satisfaction. The strongest through- lines are investments that reduce friction in guest flow and purchasing, especially where the benefit is tied to throughput. Among the top impactful investments cited in the open-ended
responses were RFID and ticketing solu- tions and e-commerce platforms. “Transitioning more products onto our e-commerce platform has drastical- ly improved guest flow and streamlined staff workdays,” said one medium resort respondent. “RFID gate access, ticket kiosks and direct-to-lift products brought efficiency gains,” said another. Several comments also pointed to operations tools—such as snowmak- ing automation, grooming technology, maintenance systems, and ops analytics dashboards—and more generally toward AI or automated processes as efficiency multipliers. (See chart 7, below.) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AI is no longer theoretical for a grow- ing share of ski areas. Nationally, 37% of respondents said they are already using AI tools (e.g., chatbots, forecasting, per-
7. Impactful Technology Investments
RFID/ACCESS CONTROL & TICKETING:
24%
E-COMMERCE/ONLINE SALES:
22%
POS/PAYMENTS:
19%
KIOSKS/PICKUP BOXES/SELF-SERVICE HARDWARE:
15%
ERP/SYSTEMS INTEGRATION:
13%
OPS/MAINTENANCE/OPS ANALYTICS:
13%
SECURITY/SURVEILLANCE/CYBER:
13%
HR/SCHEDULING/WORKFORCE:
11%
AI/AUTOMATION TOOLS:
9%
0
5
10
15
20
25
Open-ended responses to a prompt to “describe a technology investment that has measurably improved your efficiency, safety or guest satisfaction” were coded into themes; a single comment could be tagged to multiple themes. Percentages are based on total responses to the question.
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