Downhill Run

The California ski industry endured a bumpy run this season, which had started out early and strong but encountered uncooperative weather.

Southern California resort operators, with their reliance on local impulse buyers, were hit perhaps the hardest, said Bob Roberts, director of the California Ski Industry Assn., a San Francisco trade group that represents 39 resorts with combined revenue of about $500 million.

“The season was a little underwhelming,” Roberts said.

Overall, the 1996-97 ski season was better than the dismal winter that preceded it, but was not what resort owners had been hoping for, he said. The industry garnered an estimated 5.8 million “skier visits” this season, up from 5.5 million in 1995-96, he said.

Most of the state’s ski resorts have closed for the season--although Mammoth is holding out until July 4, and a few others until early May--and are turning to spring and summer moneymakers such as mountain biking, roller-blading, golf and even rock concerts. But skiing is the primary revenue generator in resort towns not only for the people who run the chairlifts, but also for restaurants, hotels, retailers and equipment rental operations.

“As the slopes go, so goes Big Bear,” said Rick Rey, owner of Boo Bear’s Den Family Restaurant in Big Bear. “It wasn’t a really great winter. I would put it as fair.”

Bear Mountain in the San Bernardino Mountains opened for skiing Nov. 8, a much better start than in the previous winter, when warm weather kept it and other resorts from opening until mid- or late December.

“When the winter started way back in November, we had hoped for something kinder from Mother Nature,” said Judi Bowers, media manager for Bear Mountain. “Unfortunately, she chose to be real stingy with natural snow.”

The ironic twist: Ski conditions were good thanks to early snows and cold weather, but balmy temperatures on the flatlands meant that potential skiers had other things on their minds. Only in Southern California do ski resort operators face such stiff competition from the beach and other vacation pursuits, Roberts said.

“People wake up and say, ‘Let’s go skiing tomorrow,’ and it’s one of the few metropolitan areas where you can say that,” Roberts said. “But if it’s not raining in the streets of Los Angeles, they think the snow isn’t good.”

In the Lake Tahoe area, resorts were dealt a financial blow by January downpours that flooded and closed U.S. Highway 50 and the Reno-Tahoe Airport for a time.

But Tahoe and Mammoth benefited from their marketing to international tourists, which is becoming an increasingly important part of the business, Roberts said.

Mary Lawrence of the Footloose Sports Center in Mammoth Lakes called the season “exceptionally good” for the sports-equipment retailer, which carries not only ski and snowboard equipment but also bikes and roller-blades to cater to the year-round sports enthusiast.

“I’ve always felt that with the economy being good, if people have the money, they’re going to come out,” she said. “If we’ve got the snow, they’re here.”

Sniffing Around Long Beach

Long Beach has launched its first television advertising campaign with two commercials featuring Spike, the 45-pound bulldog mascot of the Long Beach Ice Dogs hockey team.

The commercials, being carried on five cable systems in Southern California, follow Spike around the attractions of Long Beach as he enthuses about the restaurants, shopping, entertainment, beaches and profusion of fire hydrants.

“I could sniff around here all day,” Spike slobbers in one of the spots.

The idea is to attract more leisure visitors from Long Beach’s prime market--the rest of Southern California, said Gary Sherwin, vice president of marketing for the Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“We’re trying to educate people that Long Beach is a place where they can spend a day or weekend,” Sherwin said.

The bureau, in cooperation with the Ice Dogs and Downtown Long Beach Associates, also is putting up billboards with the slogan “So Hot It’s Cool” and is launching a direct mail campaign to 75,000 American Express cardholders.

Long Beach will follow with a similar ad and mail campaign in the Phoenix area, Long Beach’s other big market, Sherwin said.

Nancy Rivera Brooks can be reached by e-mail at nancy .rivera.brooks@latimes.com or by fax at (213) 237-7837.

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Getting a Lift

Despite uncooperative weather, the 39 ski areas represented by the California Ski Industry Assn. logged more skier visits during the 1996-97 season than in the previous year. Skier visits, in millions:

‘96-’97: 5.8*

* Estimate

Source: California Ski industry Assn. Researched by JENNIFER OLDHAM / Los Angeles Times