Playcations and Partnerships: Inside Horseshoe Valley's Resort Strategy

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  0:01  
This is forward motion discussions about the important topic shaping Ontario's tourism industry. Here's your host, Andrew sigward,

Andrew Siegwart  0:09  
hi. Everyone joining us today for the forward motion podcast. Is Sarah Tyler, marketing manager at horseshoe Valley Resort. Today we discuss Ontario's unique resorting culture, community, engagement and marketing with authenticity. Please enjoy. Welcome to forward motion. Sarah, why don't we just start at the beginning? Can you share a little bit about your career path and what drew you to the marketing and tourism industries?

Sarah Tyler  0:33  
Honestly, making airports out of Lego and designing menus to have my parents and family enjoy food for my imaginary restaurants. Now I get to make menus for real life for restaurants on the resort. So exciting. I went to school for communication studies with minors in anthropology and Film Studies at Wilfred Laurier University, and then I continued my education journey on at Seneca College. So I pursued public relations and corporate communications diploma, and then also a course in UX writing, which I use daily. Those skills in my job. Now I've had some past experience within hospitality as a bartender, and I actually worked at Snow Valley before I worked at horseshoe, so that was a fun teenage job, and now I'm loving it here at horseshoe Valley Resort as the marketing manager, and I get to focus on both the guest experience and hospitality side.

Andrew Siegwart  1:41  
What I love about what you're sort of highlighting in terms of your career journey is just that all paths can lead to tourism. And you know, you you studied Marketing and Communications, and really it's one of those fields that can be one of those skill sets that can apply to so many different sectors. But it is really fun and different in tourism, isn't it? You're not just marketing talking points or financial reports. It's really the experience. It's so much more dynamic. Totally,

Sarah Tyler  2:07  
there's so much going on. It's always changing. And I really appreciate that you get to impact how people spend their free time.

Andrew Siegwart  2:15  
Now. Just curious, the UX program, what does that entail?

Sarah Tyler  2:19  
So it was an online course. So there's two components. Basically, you're learning about how to make the customer journey even better and more accessible on digital platforms, so looking at how something, maybe like a button, is displayed on a website to the flow through the buying process.

Andrew Siegwart  2:40  
Gotcha, yeah, it's, it's so intricate, isn't it?

Sarah Tyler  2:45  
Yeah, it's, it's amazing how much detail and attention can go to the tiny elements in the systems that we interact with daily.

Andrew Siegwart  2:55  
Okay, so for those who know, who may not be as familiar, can you tell us a little bit about the history of Horseshoe Valley Resort and what the resort the resort looks like today. Yeah. So

Sarah Tyler  3:04  
in our humble beginnings of 1962 horseshoe Valley Resort was founded. Since then, in 1987 we built our Inn at horseshoe so adding 101 hotel rooms, making it really an overnight destination. Skiing is definitely what we're known for, but we also have activities year round, so making it a four, four season resort. Now, we are continually having groups and weddings and lots of different recreational activities brought to the resort season to season. It does change, and it makes it a very vibrant community. We have a lot of little events going on, and some major events throughout the year as well. So always something happening and continually growing and expanding our activities. We just redid our beginner area for our ski activity, and then we also have over 30 kilometers of Nordic trails, which is super popular in the winter and continually growing

Andrew Siegwart  4:08  
so I grew up in Thunder Bay, so back in the day, when we had about five different ski hills up there. But we also had a lot of Nordic trails, and they still exist. But it is nice to have the option of both, and it is quite popular, isn't it? Yeah,

Sarah Tyler  4:24  
it's it's definitely something you can do at your own pace. So being able to get that workout, get the fresh air and enjoy the surroundings, it's really seen it here in the Valley. So having that opportunity, if you're a little afraid of heights. Some people prefer the Nordic trails and the beauty of the forested areas so nice.

Andrew Siegwart  4:48  
Yeah, you know one of my hacks, I'm definitely a person who tends to be a bit afraid of heights, but I always found that night skiing, I found that so much more helpful, because it sort of eliminates the depth so. I found that I got more comfortable skiing at night, and then I got over my fear of heights from it. So it's kind of fun with the the Nordic skiing. Do you do? Do you have snow making capability for the Nordic or is that more natural?

Sarah Tyler  5:12  
That is all natural. On our Nordic side, we do have a grooming team that goes out to lay the trails and make sure everything's maintained, but it is all natural. So this winter was amazing for our Nordic side. I'll

Andrew Siegwart  5:26  
bet I was just gonna ask you, how was this key season this year? Any any highlights or surprises that you found

Sarah Tyler  5:33  
in comparison to the past few years? There is such an abundance of snow, which brought people out all the way through in full force, beyond March Break, which was awesome. It was great to see the excitement and people either coming back to the sport after maybe taking a season off, or just learning fresh our discovery programs were very busy. Oh, that's good season. And we had one of our top events, I would say, was our Lapa Palooza, which was partially a fundraiser for the RVH Foundation, our local hospital. And that was a really great community event with lots of people on the slopes.

Andrew Siegwart  6:16  
And what was so, what does the lap of Palooza mean? Is it, do you have to do, like, a lot of laps or a lot of runs?

Sarah Tyler  6:21  
Yes, yeah. So your goal is to do as many laps as you can within a certain time frame. So there was lots of vendors out in front of the a patio, and there was definitely a good competition, as people were racing down the slopes trying to get the most laps as possible.

Andrew Siegwart  6:42  
Oh, that's super fun. That's super and good for you. It's great to support your local your local community, with programs like that. What makes Ontario's resorts like horseshoe Valley so appealing to today's visitors? So the resorting experience and culture is quite big in Ontario. Why do you think it's so appealing?

Sarah Tyler  7:00  
I think it's awesome that you don't need to go far away to relax and enjoy an adventure. It's definitely convenient, but you're also supporting the local economy and jobs within our communities here in Ontario.

Andrew Siegwart  7:16  
Yeah, I think there's something about the experience of being somewhere where you can just unwind and where everything is close to you, where you sort of just get to tune out the rest of the world, and you can just have a great experience as a four season multi attraction destination. You know, horseshoe Valley is, as you were saying in the setup is always evolving. Are you seeing any key trends or shifts in what guests are looking for in the sort of attraction experience side of things. What we're

Sarah Tyler  7:45  
noticing, especially for overnight stays, is that people are looking for inclusive packages. Oh, that's something we've noticed in our search terms when we're seeing what people are really looking for as they're planning for their upcoming season adventures. So something we've really focused on the past couple years is a placation package when you get a variety of different activities, so you're not having to go through the mental labor of trying to plan out each little thing you get to enjoy all you want when you want to enjoy it. So there's no like booking specific times. You just come enjoy, relax. That would be a big thing that we've been seeing, also just the personalization of their adventures. So if, let's say, the parents want to go for a round of golf, and then the kids are like, Hey, I'm not into this. Maybe they want to go and participate in the day camps, making that experience more customizable for us, that means offering single day opportunities for our day camps in the summer, so it gives the parents a chance to go and do what they want to do, but still having the kids have an awesome time and enjoying the environment,

Andrew Siegwart  9:09  
right? So you can really mix and match with a family or a group. Yes, definitely. I love that term play cation. Yeah, that's a good one. It's, it's very it's very timely, as we are talking about, you know, the concept of staying close to home this year, or a lot of, a lot of Ontarians looking to travel closer to home that that that adds an interesting spin on that. For sure, are there, are there some new attractions that you've launched in the last few years that are gaining traction? I mean, I think you were, you're doing, are you still doing the downhill mountain biking,

Sarah Tyler  9:41  
yes, so that is going strong. We have 14 downhill runs. Oh, wow. It is one of the few lift operated parks in Ontario. We have a Weekly Race series for all ages, so we see from about four years old to over 50 plus. So. That's awesome.

Andrew Siegwart  10:01  
There's still time for me. Yeah,

Sarah Tyler  10:04  
we offer lessons. There's going to be discover packages for bike as well. This year, our golf course transitioned into an 18 hole course again last year. So this year will be our first summer in a while with the full 18 and continually looking at and improving that golf experience and bringing it to a higher level. Yeah. So that's always fun. We've found that there's a lot of interest in live music, yeah. So having not necessarily a like active event, but more of a people can come from the community. If they're overnight guests, they can come. Some people bring their dogs and enjoy cover bands, and most of them are from the area or Ontario, so supporting those local artists as well,

Andrew Siegwart  10:53  
for sure. Yeah, concerts, yeah. I think I remember from my time at Blue Mountain just how many artists that would be on, sort of on the team throughout the year. And you sort of take a look at it, and you realize, Wow, we have so much local talent, and we're a great place for for cultivating that. And if I recall, at horseshoe overlay, you've done some pretty big name concerts too,

Sarah Tyler  11:14  
yeah. So I believe two summers ago we had our Lady piece, which was an amazing time. I'm hoping we get some more larger concerts, but I know I will definitely still attend the weekly ones. And then we also had Bleecker, who is from Orillia. So that had a amazing local draw, yeah, for sure, and very talented band as well, most weekends throughout the winter season and our busy summer weekends. And we'll also have Christian Primrose, who is basically our in house DJ at this point, and he's awesome, living locally and entertaining everyone out on the hill and on the patio.

Andrew Siegwart  11:59  
Tell me your, I mean, your your offerings are quite vast, and, you know, sort of innovating in your ski product, where you have your your Alpine across country, as well as your downhill. I mean, you're expanding your golf and all of these, the downhill biking, for example, like a lot of these attractions and experiences are, they're continuing to grow, or they're having a renewed interest like golf, I think has really picked up. I'm wondering, what is your what does your visitor mix look like right now? Like, are you have you seen any changes in the last few years? Is it getting younger? Are you seeing more people from overseas or local? Like, what does that look like today? What is horseshoe valleys guests profile?

Sarah Tyler  12:36  
We have a lot of guests come from the GTA. Markham is a growing market for us, both in weddings as well as overnight ski adventures. We used to see a lot more from the States. Now it's definitely more concentrated within Ontario and Quebec as well. There's a lot of mountain bikers that will come from Quebec and more northern Ontario, so it's awesome to have them here.

Andrew Siegwart  13:06  
Quebecers Are they really do a lot of great travel in Ontario in the summer. Is it a target for your organization to be looking at growing your market outside of Canada, or outside of Ontario, within Canada or in some of those international markets. Are you looking at the United States a little differently today?

Sarah Tyler  13:28  
We're not necessarily focusing on those markets right now, where we are focused on educating the Ontario population that, hey, we're open year round. A lot of people do know us as a ski resort, and don't realize how much there really is off season, like in the summertime, we can definitely sell out. So people are booking now for those vacations, but so many people don't experience us at multiple seasons unless they live locally. That's right. There's a lot of individuals and potential guests that don't realize how awesome other seasons can be.

Andrew Siegwart  14:11  
Yeah, and especially summer attract summer experiences at Alpine destinations and Snow Resorts are a lot of fun.

Sarah Tyler  14:20  
It's a cool vibe, and kind of you see so much more when the snow isn't here, and realizing, oh, there is a lake over here, or, oh, there's this cool mini putt course, that obviously isn't open in the winter time. So there's, there's new experiences in familiar places,

Andrew Siegwart  14:38  
thinking a little bit about your sort of neighborhood, what kind of challenges, or what sort of tourism challenges and opportunities do you see in Simcoe County overall right now, in that general area of the province right now,

Sarah Tyler  14:51  
honestly, a lot of us are dealing with the aftermath of the recent ice storm. There's a lot of trees, a lot of debris. The community is a. Are coming together to clear the trails and move forward from from that. So that's definitely a current challenge, and making sure that we can operate everything super safely, have clear signage and everything to make sure that it's a really great experience. I think, in terms of opportunities, we have a lot of older destinations here that we can't necessarily knock down a whole building or a whole like hill or anything like that. So there's always like little changes to improve the facilities and improve museums and improve the different other attractions in the area. And I think there's a lot of cool things and unique, innovative ideas that people have and are putting in place in Simcoe County to really uplift what we have to offer in the area that's

Andrew Siegwart  15:58  
so consistent with what we're hearing right now, Tayo has been working on a new strategic plan for Ontario. One of the top pillars and recommendations that operators shared with us was a desire for more investment in attractions, but not just new attractions, also investing in existing attractions that need that that evolution and that enhancement. So sounds like you're really, you really dialed into those things that that that matter. And yeah, a little bit of extra product development goes a long way, doesn't it? Yes, definitely, the ice storm is an interesting thing for you to highlight. And I hadn't really thought about the impact on something like trails, for example. Like, I'm sure you have hiking trails nearby and all that, but that that that is a pretty big effort, isn't it, to sort of clean that up. Yeah, definitely. And so who comes together to do that? Is that the municipality, as well as the, you know, county level, I guess, you know, conservation folks, like, it's probably a big team you have to bring together,

Sarah Tyler  16:57  
yeah. So it's a big mixture. Like, directly on the resort. We have our grounds team, and I'm sure, because we still do have snow here, right, right. And mid April,

Andrew Siegwart  17:06  
here are the runs still opening, or like, do you still have runs? The

Sarah Tyler  17:10  
runs aren't open. The tops are very bare. The grounds team and working with our local organizations. So there's the Simcoe County Mountain Bike Club, the Copeland forest friends. There was a lot of power outages at that time, just a couple weeks ago, for over a week for some of our neighbors. Did have a warming center here at the resort, because we did get our power back and we were able to have community come here, get something to eat, play games, that kind of thing. Some people did decide to stay over if they needed that refuge, but that was with the township of Oro medonte, so working with them to make sure that everyone in the community is taken care of and has somewhere to go. I think that working together with a variety of local partners is definitely beneficial for us and introduces us to new potential other partners and businesses within the community.

Andrew Siegwart  18:14  
And I think it's such an example of of how embedded resorts are in communities. And as a result, in addition to driving the economy and employment and providing experiences when, when times get tough, you're you can be there to help on a number of other fronts. That's That's great to hear. Following that train a little bit. How does horseshoe Valley work with other businesses, DMOS, or tourism partners in the region to promote Simcoe like Do you have a lot of partnerships with your neighboring businesses to sort of CO market or work together,

Sarah Tyler  18:44  
yeah, so some of that might be directly in our packages. So beta Nordic Spa is one that we have a spa and stay package with ambo spa, which is directly in our hotel, but still a third party business. Tree top tracking Barry is also a very important relationship for us. Smart riding adventures. All of these businesses have packages with us, so really making the experience of our guests elevated and more diverse some things we don't have the capacity to offer. ATV tours, for example, from our own staff. And so having a partner that's just at the top of our hill able to provide these experiences in a really professional and a really fun way. Quite frankly, it's a blast. It's helpful to make the overall experience of a guest in horseshoe Valley and Simcoe County. Great, like honestly, really great. We work with RTO seven and destination Ontario to bring either media or have funding for specific initiatives. We had a Pride weekend for the past three. Early January, and that was largely supported by RTO seven, and they've been really successful fun events that are great for the community and also bringing people from other areas of Ontario to celebrate and enjoy the resort, one partner that we use quite frequently in supporting our bike demographic, it would be the Orillia and Lake Country tourism. So they are fantastic in fundraising and supporting, sponsoring our bike events. So we have Bike Fest every September crank Works has been an awesome event that we've hosted as well, and either featuring a specific event or we have had other sponsors support overall. It's really great to come together, and it's a very rewarding position for me, being here and seeing so many people happy and enjoying their time. So those partnerships are very valuable. This cycling

Andrew Siegwart  21:07  
culture is is big in the region, and I would imagine when you when you do that kind of programming and collaborations, you know visitors see you as more than just a place to visit. That becomes part of their their routine, their psycho culture, the things that they really enjoy. Yeah, in

Sarah Tyler  21:25  
the winter, we saw a large amount of snowmobilers coming. There's a snowmobile trail that goes just past the resort here, so they can come in, grab a bite to eat, enjoy some chili, maybe by the fire, and warm up and then head back out on the trails, and it's great to see people coming and going. Yeah, in

Andrew Siegwart  21:44  
a way, your horseshoe Valley Resort is quite a community hub, isn't it? Yeah, you can see that. And I love the I love the collaboration with lots of businesses and partners. I would imagine there's a lot of small local businesses that you're you're working with too, so they must be champions of of the resort, and because they benefit from the from the visitors, definitely,

Sarah Tyler  22:06  
yeah, from whether it's a food partner to providing services for our conferences and events, whether it's like cookies for a favor, or florals or decor, looking at local vendors is amazing, and we're very happy to suggest them to our clients and guests. We

Andrew Siegwart  22:31  
want to talk a little bit about some marketing and innovation, since this is such a an area of your own professional expertise, I know we're seeing a growing shift toward more personalized and immersive travel. How is horseshoe Valley Resort leveraging technology or data to meet those evolving guest experience needs and expectations?

Sarah Tyler  22:51  
Yeah, so we try to meet people where they are. So whether that's through a dynamic booking engine, if someone wants to talk on the phone to someone. We do have an agent who's available to do that if they're looking to be more hands off and do it on their own online. That's an option that we provide when we are looking at like email campaigns and even text campaigns, which is something that we've dabbled in a little bit. Yes, segmentation is really important for us to retain the subscribers, so making sure that people who are really interested in golf are hearing about our golf packages and golf offers. First, sometimes there's crossover with downhill mountain biking or skiing, sometimes there isn't. Sometimes we'll sprinkle in a little bit of side information, but making sure that the guests are receiving the type of communications and information that they're really interested in, this makes it more likely that they're going to keep subscribing hear more about things that might actually interest them, but also make sure it's relevant and timely. We are looking at more like real time service tools, so something like an AI chat bot, or looking at post day surveys to make sure that we're getting the feedback and we're getting whatever we can to really make sure those guest experiences are as best as we can provide,

Andrew Siegwart  24:26  
like the AI enhanced services, I mean, they really do make a difference getting

Sarah Tyler  24:30  
the information you need, really making sure that there's the least amount of friction points as possible makes the experience so much better. It makes the guests much happier, and the faster they can complete what they intended to do, whether that's booking a stay, buying a season pass, just finding out if there's an indoor pool, the quicker they can get the information, the happier they are. Who doesn't like happy guests? Right? So. That's

Andrew Siegwart  25:00  
right. And I would imagine, through all of these types of you know, tools that you're using, you're getting more data to make better decisions. Is that? Is that a part of the strategy as well? Yeah,

Sarah Tyler  25:09  
so finding out what people value is important. Most of our campaigns are value driven, knowing that people are coming from Toronto because they are close. Like choosing horseshoe Valley Resort as a destination because it is convenient, is how we will really position our campaigns for the future, and showcasing that feature, showing that, hey, there is a lot to do for people of all ages at the resort, and knowing that maybe the moms of a couple families went to the spa and their kids stayed back and wanted to just play in the pool, knowing that they have different experiences and different wants and needs, and looking at the data that that showcases that information is important.

Andrew Siegwart  26:05  
And I think what you're what you're tapping into, is that particularly families and groups, they they don't have a lot of time. Life is busy. Life has got a lot of demands. And so when you can go somewhere on vacation, where the options are easy, and in front of you, it's close to home, and you can you can maximize your experience. I mean, that's what customers are looking for, for sure. Yeah. How would you describe the values of your customers? Would you say they are more oriented toward spending time with friends and family, are they more oriented toward that adventure or just a general leisure experience, like anything above and beyond the activities that I would say sort of represents the horseshoe Valley brand?

Sarah Tyler  26:52  
Yeah, I would say our guests are on the go. They're often jack of all trades, so they want to get their thrills from a variety of different ways. They appreciate creating memories with their friends and family and spending time outdoors. That is definitely at the core, getting time in the fresh air and rejuvenating through nature. I

Andrew Siegwart  27:22  
actually believe it's one of the things that makes the region in Ontario so special, is that we have so many opportunities to do just that. But you do it very well at horseshoe Valley Resort. No question, just because I suspect that we'll have a number of marketers dialing into this episode. Can you maybe share a recent marketing campaign that really moved the needle for you. And you know what made it work in terms of guests experience and engagement, or brand awareness, or ultimately, bookings. Last

Sarah Tyler  27:48  
summer, we had our summer stay campaign, which we started in April. So it was, it felt fairly early to be talking about summer, but it turned out to be quite beneficial for us. It was a value driven campaign, and we really tried to involve both content and copy from our past influencers and giving real experiences. So whether that was a testimonial from a past guest or a reel on Instagram or a video on Tiktok, putting out content that was very authentic is something that really did well for that campaign, and that resulted in sold out weekends and sold out even mid week at some points for us and last summer, which is fantastic, and it's always rewarding to see the resort busy, but having people happy and enjoying their time and getting the feedback afterwards that they did have an awesome experience is just so great. It feels really good with that campaign, in

Andrew Siegwart  29:02  
those in that context, with the influencers and the reels. Was it more user generated? Or did you create the reels? Or were you leveraging the user generated content? So

Sarah Tyler  29:12  
we would leverage the user generated content quite often. We're collaborating on Instagram with creators. We do host influencers throughout the year and looking for influencers who touch different markets and have different lifestyles and different personalities. And we do curate our influencers fairly manually. At this point, we've looked at a few different platforms, but right now, really it's a very hands on experience for us in actually selecting and planning for an influencer to come and what content we're looking for, but once they arrive, we are very. It's off actually. So we want to make sure they're having an authentic experience. So other than if they're having an issue or if they have a quick question, they always have someone on our team's contact, but otherwise, we try to make sure that they're experiencing the resort just as a regular guest and being able to talk to our service staff and our different partners around the resort and enjoying it as real as possible, even though there might be either a discount or a complimentary component to their stay,

Andrew Siegwart  30:36  
even in this digital marketing world where you're relying on data, online channels, social platforms. There's still an element that's about relationship building and curation that you do. That is, you know that the AI folks can't quite do that yet. This is really requires your expertise relationship building. And I think that's a very it's a very important point to highlight. So I would guess you would say that sort of working with influencers is still quite a quite an important element of brand building and marketing. Or would you say that that trend is still quite prominent? We've

Sarah Tyler  31:12  
been looking at a lot of micro influencers over the past couple of years. They might not have as large of an audience as a as a major player, but they are able to connect with people, I think, a lot more personally, and the people following them are more likely to be people they actually know I like. Personally, I would trust someone that I know much more than someone I've I've only seen online, and that authenticity and making sure that whoever we're partnering with is really aligning with our brand values is important to us. If someone loves the outdoors and they're they like to try new things and be active and have a really often a wellness component, their lifestyle and the content they produce, that's something that's awesome for us. If someone's focused on a different industry or like, there's a lot of really awesome like beauty creators out there that they have amazing feeds, great content. It's just not a good fit for our brand, and so finding the right people to support the overall message that we're trying to put out on social is super key for us.

Andrew Siegwart  32:31  
If someone hasn't really started on that yet, what would your advice be on how they could where should they start to look for those folks who might have a brand alignment? And how do you recommend they reach out to them?

Sarah Tyler  32:41  
For us, we do have a form right on our website for influencers to reach out to us, and our management team reviews those, and we'll reach out to see what a collaboration might look like. With them going the other direction, with us searching out influencers and creators, we will honestly just scroll on Instagram or Tiktok, kind of see who's engaging within the demographics that we're looking to target. Yeah, it takes up quite a bit of research, and honestly, it's fun research. You get to scroll on Instagram for a little while, but having that kind of always having a pulse on on what's going on within the community, and if someone's doing great content within a field that you're trying to target and trying to really feature that's that's awesome,

Andrew Siegwart  33:37  
and I think what you're getting at is you really do have To be engaged in your in your feeds and in your channels. And you know, algorithms and reports can give you the gist. But like you said, scrolling and paying attention to what's happening is kind of the way you have to do it. And I guess the good news is, you know, sometimes we all feel guilty when we scroll, so to be able to carve out work time to do that scrolling, it's great. It's a win. Win, right? Yeah, it's

Sarah Tyler  34:02  
good to know what's what's going on. Something that's worked well for us is seeing who's already champion, championing the resort, and connecting with them and making more of a partnership out of it, something a little bit more formal, but it they're clearly already interested. They have that investment already in their minds, into the resort, and then by being able to kind of sweeten their experience, just even just a little bit, if it's offering, like a discount code or something like that, then that's a good start for an awesome relationship.

Andrew Siegwart  34:41  
Wanted to just sort of, you know, ask your perspective on, you know, the current economic uncertainty and some of the tariff conversations that are happening, you know, really all around us. I'm wondering if you've seen any specific impacts on your business, and whether you're, you're adapting any of your approaches. Accordingly for this season ahead. Yeah, in

Sarah Tyler  35:03  
our campaigns, we definitely want to focus on staying local, and we are. We are already seeing the bookings come through for for summer packages, there's always going to be a fluctuating environment in economics, for prices of things and such, but making sure that we're able to provide a great experience at the level that our guests are are wanting that experience, and highlighting the proximity we talked previously about the multi activity packages, all of that is kind of what we're looking at to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our potential guests.

Andrew Siegwart  35:45  
And I know it's kind of hard for me to ask this, but in general, are you seeing that your pace is good compared to other years? I know a lot of people are talking about there's a lot more activity, or they're seeing people searching more, preparing for summer, anticipating that there may be maybe a little more demand this year, so people are wanting to sort of get out there early. Are you seeing those indicators? Our

Sarah Tyler  36:06  
pace is definitely ahead for the upcoming season, and it's great to see as a business, for sure, but it is notable that we are this far ahead throughout COVID And just after, like local tourism has definitely been strong, but to see it continually grow in the that booking window slightly increase is is notable for us, for sure, when

Andrew Siegwart  36:34  
you have a strong brand that's connected to your customer, when things like this happen, that brand affiliation matters. And likely what people are saying is, you know what? This year I'm gonna go here because I trust them. I know what I'm gonna expect. We're aligned in values, and they're making it easy for me. So I think it's a times like this. I think are always a way to sort of reinforce that message, right? If we stay focused on our brands and we stay focused on the fundamentals, the customer knows they see it. It's

Sarah Tyler  37:03  
great time to to know that there's lots of local things to do, whether it's at one destination or broadening your journey and your your trip to include other local things. There's so much going on and you don't want to miss it.

Andrew Siegwart  37:19  
Finally, what? What advice would you have for folks who are look, who maybe haven't started planning summer yet? You know, what would you say to them if they're thinking about coming up to horseshoe Valley Resort this year?

Sarah Tyler  37:29  
For us, definitely check out our offers page. Things are booking already, so book early if you do want to have specific dates for your vacations and make the most of what's here in our backyards. Yeah, you can really maximize the summer without venturing too far from

Andrew Siegwart  37:47  
home. Sounds like you're really, you're really ready for the moment. Yes, we

Sarah Tyler  37:53  
are super excited. Let's get the rest of the snow out of here and bring on that sunshine.

Andrew Siegwart  38:00  
Well, I want to thank you so much for spending some time with us and just reacquainting us with sort of what's happening at horseshoe Valley Resort in the region. I'm really impressed with all the collaborative work that you're doing, and thanks for sharing some of your marketing Intel and recommendations. They're very valued. We just appreciate all of your your support engagement with us, and we wish you all the best for the summer ahead.

Sarah Tyler  38:23  
Thank you so much. It's been a joy chatting with you, and we'll hopefully see you here this summer.

Andrew Siegwart  38:30  
That's right, maybe we can have, maybe we can have a celebratory cocktail at one of those musical events this summer.

Sarah Tyler  38:36  
Sounds great to me.

Andrew Siegwart  38:39  
We'll take care. 

Sarah Tyler  38:40  
Thank you.

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  38:41  
Thanks for listening to forward motion. This show is created by the tourism industry association of Ontario and is recognized by government as the voice of tourism and produced by everyone at the sound off media company.