WEATHERING THE SUMMER OF ‘23
decline in business at Zip Timber Lake, a canopy and zip tour park in Indiana.
pitality programs hoping to create more cross-functional opportunities and internships for prospective recruits, “so they’re not only doing zip line work, but also working in marketing, operational- ly, financially, and getting a well-round - ed experience,” he said. “For us, it’s learning some new channels of recruitment,” he added. “We may be missing some opportunities in how we recruit. It’s easy to fall into complacen- cy, and we’re hoping that this may open some new avenues for us.” Older applicants. Damron at Highlands saw a decline in qualified applicants this summer. “We were a little slimmer, staff-wise, than we’d like. The last two to three years, the minimum age of ap- plicants is way up. We used to get a lot of high school and college-age students looking for a summer job. Those days are gone. We’re getting more people in their 20s and 30s.” “We’re in the same boat as everyone else when it comes to finding staff,” said Bogue at Challenge Quest.
“All they have to do is make a reserva- tion,” Pierce said. “It helped our num - bers. The university pays us a stipend, and it gets [the students] out of the dorm rooms.” Large groups. In Oklahoma, Bogue also said groups, especially large ones (75 or more), were up. “This year we saw a lot of larger groups, corporate, school groups booking. We had one group at the end of September of around 400. They booked up the en - tire facility for the day. We cater to what they want to do.” Bogue said there is also a 100-plus room lodge on the property that does a lot of weddings and corporate retreats, and shares some bookings with the adventure park. STAFFING CHALLENGES At the other end of the spectrum, staffing difficulties contributed to a 30 percent
“The Covid years were some of our better years,” said operator Matt Faley. “Our best revenue year was 2020-21. This summer has been very difficult. Our biggest challenge has been staffing. It is clearly our worst year ever in terms of recruiting and retention. I won’t say we turned away business, but we had to adjust some of our revenue strategies, available tours, the number of weekend tours. We’ve not been aggressive at all with marketing.” Faley said the park “used to get a fair number of repeat staff for a summer or two, traditionally college age.” But the reliability, and perhaps the expec- tations, of returners appears to have changed. “I think people recognize that the job is fun, but also hard work, and one summer is enough. Also, the hours are not ideal,” he said. “Most of our business is weekends and holidays.”
New strategies. Going forward, Faley is reaching out to local colleges with hos-
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