It was dumping snow outside the window of the Ski Utah office in Salt Lake City as Raelene Davis regaled podcast listeners with story after story about The Greatest Snow on Earth®.
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This April, Davis will celebrate 40 years with the organization. She has served in her current role as Vice President of Marketing and Operations for 10 of those 40 years. Her face lights up with the biggest smiles as she recalls all of Ski Utah's creative marketing campaigns as well as the impressive and innovative engagement programs that she started from the ground up. Most of all, she remembers all of the people she’s met along the way.
Raelene Davis and Tom Kelly recorded this episode's podcast in the Ski Utah office.
Davis grew up in Vernal, Utah, far from the alpine peaks of the Wasatch. She actively made space for skiing in her life by joining friends who skied at nearby Grizzly Ridge, before moving to Colorado for a while. After Colorado, Raelene found her way to Salt Lake City. During her search for a new career, she answered a job ad for Ski Utah's Marketing Director role in 1985 – and the rest is history.
“I met (executive director at the time) Danny Richardson and had a great interview with him,” she recalled. “And he hired me. I was so blessed to get that job. And when he hired me, he said, ’look at this job as a stepping stone.’ Well, it's been a really big stepping stone because I never left.”
Raelene at Tourism Day on the HIll
Along the way, her marketing creativity helped Utah stand out. She once partnered with Busch Beer to take a summertime crushed ice ramp around the country to promote skiing in Utah. She was an early adopter of this new medium called the World Wide Web. And during the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, she sent her team of marketers to Courchevel, France to pitch British skiers watching the Games in pubs. The next year, they all came to Utah!
Ski Utah Passport ad
Her diligence to the task of being a big acvocate for Utah skiing, combined with her charisma, has earned her friends around the world. But what has really impacted the sport long-term in Utah has been her creativity with introductory programs. Fourth-grade ski programs soon led to the inclusion of fifth-graders and now even sixth-graders – offering 10,000 kids every winter season a chance to ski at all 15 Utah resorts at a very affordable rate. Learn more about the 4th, 5th and 6th Grade Passport Program here.
Discover Winter Group at Sundance Mountain Resort
During a strong shift toward the DEI movement in 2020, while many programs were focused on youth skiing and riding, Davis wanted to focus on adults. After long discussions with a committee and finding the right sponsors, the Discover Winter program was born and has introduced 850 adults to skiing and riding, creating a new community of skiers and riders in Utah. Learn more about the Discover Winter program here.
In her tenure, Raelene has led Utah to new heights in destination visitors. Much of that has come from foreign markets, thanks to her presence at international ski shows. While she’s had the opportunity to travel far and wide, she has a unique perspective about her "favorite" destinations. “Wherever I am, that's my favorite place,” she laughed. “I love every place I've been and the people I've met. I really have a lot of friendships all over the world now. If and when I ever leave Ski Utah and I travel on my own, it's nice to know that I will be able to go to those places and have people who I can share a dinner with and do some fun things.”
Creative advertisement representing the close proximity of Salt Lake City's airport to the ski slopes!
Along the way, Davis has been well-recognized. She was an Olympic torchbearer during the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, she’s been inducted into the Utah Tourism Hall of Fame and the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame. She was honored with a National Ski Areas Association Lifetime Achievement Award. And she’s a current nominee for the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame. Yet, she remains humble. “I'm a person of faith, and I believe that God gave me talents, and I hope that I have been a good steward of those talents and have shared them with people.” And, share she does. She’ll frequently get calls from university students asking about their own career paths and she gladly shares her experiences with all of them.
In between all her achievements and hard work, she still loves to get out on the snow. One of her greatest joys is skiing with her grandchildren through Bucky’s Front Yard at Deer Valley Resort and later settling down in Silver Lake Lodge with a piece of carrot cake.
And she continues to take pride in the collaboration between Ski Utah and its 15 resort partners – especially when resorts like Snowbasin Resort win the number one spot in magazine polls!
If you’re a Utah skier or have been inspired to experience The Greatest Snow on Earth®, send a shout-out to Raelene Davis next time you dive your ski tips into that perfect, untouched powder she can't stop talking about.
Raelene, thank you for everything you have done for the skiers and riders in Utah and happy 40th anniversary.
Transcript
|00:00:00| Tom Kelly: It is a snowy, blustery day here in Utah, the kind we love up in the mountains, and we are hunkered down in the Ski Utah office down in the valley, just watching the snow fall outside. And with me, the Vice President Marketing and Operations for Ski Utah, my good friend Raelene Davis. Raelene, this was your concept to do the podcast, and it's great to have you on as a guest, finally.
|00:00:20| Raelene Davis: Well, thanks, Tom. I'm just happy that you agreed to be our host because truly, you make this podcast. Your voice is known worldwide and you are one of the best interviewers I have ever met in my life. So thank you.
|00:00:34| Tom Kelly: Well, it's really been a lot of fun. I mean, we've we've met so many really interesting people who are kind of formed the fabric of the story of Ski Utah. And it's been fun to take this out on the road. And, you know, I like to joke about, yeah, I've done this in the bottom of 12-foot snow pits. I've done it in the red tram hanging over the Cirque at Snowbird, and all sorts of unusual places. But it's been fun to come here to the Ski Utah office. So once in a while. Once in a while. This is where all the fun emanates from, right?
|00:01:04| Raelene Davis: Well, fun and work, but a lot of fun for sure. A lot of work.
|00:01:08| Tom Kelly: And we're going to talk about that. We're recording this in the latter part of February and what has been another great season of skiing. And it's fun to be able to come down here today from Park City and have to dodge snow all the way down and thinking, man, I could be out on the mountain right now. But it has been a pretty good year.
|00:01:27| Raelene Davis: It has been. We had a slow start, but wow, the past few weeks have just been phenomenal. Lots of great snow and events that have happened. And yeah, it's it's it's a great season.
|00:01:38| Tom Kelly: Well, we are celebrating your 40th anniversary with Ski Utah. And I think back to I had a long career at the US. Ski and Snowboard wasn't quite 40 years, but 40 years is a long time, and there's been a lot of changes. And we're going to talk about some of those changes and kind of dig back into the memory bank a little bit to kind of remember what it was like back in the 80s and in the 90s. But in your tenure over 40 years, the skier visits here in Utah have increased from 2.7 million to over 7 million. That's quite a change.
|00:02:08| Raelene Davis: It is. And I mean, it shocked us a little bit when we hit the 7 million mark, because we jumped from 5 million to 5.5 million to 7 million in one season. Now, that was the year that we had 903 inches of great, you know, great powder snow. But still going skipping the six millions was pretty incredible. And yes, over 40 years going from 2.7 to 7 million. That is a big jump.
|00:02:35| Tom Kelly: You know, those of us who live here just love the fact that we can get in our cars, and within an hour we can be at a half a dozen or more wonderful Utah ski resorts. But one of the things that you've really accomplished over this tenure is increasing the destination visitors, the folks who come to our state, I think it's increased something like from 48% to well over 60%. That's a pretty good benchmark of getting visitors from literally around the world to come to our state.
|00:02:59| Raelene Davis: That's that's true. Tom, we we set out our mission is to inspire the world to Ski Utah. And I really believe we've we've done a good job doing that. In fact, my children say, mom, will you please stop doing such a good job?
|00:03:13| Tom Kelly: But I could I can totally envision that. But, it is. I mean, I think … at least I carry a lot of pride of being from Utah. And when I travel the world to talk to people about the great skiing here and, they've heard of us now and they, they aspire to come here and ski in our mountains. Yeah.
|00:03:30| Raelene Davis: You know, Tom, it brings back a memory of a long time ago, there was an ad that ran that had the picture of the United States, and Utah wasn't even in that picture. And I just laughed because many years ago, people didn't think that you could ski in Utah. They didn't even know about Utah. And now, certainly we are definitely on the map in a lot of ways.
|00:03:56| Tom Kelly: Well, let's talk about your background. You grew up in Vernal, Utah, and tell us about growing up in Vernal and skiing at Grizzly Ridge.
|00:04:04| Raelene Davis: So I grew up in vernal until I was 18, and then I or sorry, 13. And then, I moved to Colorado. But when I was eight years old, my parents, who did not ski, but they realized that it was important to give their children outdoor opportunities. They had a friend who skied, and so they talked him into taking me up to Grizzly Ridge, which is a little ski area just south of Flaming Gorge, and he taught me how to ski. Of course, wood skis, bear trap bindings, leather, double lace, lace up boots, rope tows, Poma lifts. It was. It was a pretty small ski area. But that's where I learned to ski. And I did not have a skiing family, so I didn't ski that much when I was in vernal. But when I moved to Colorado we had weekend ski trips from our junior high and high school, and so I would go up with friends. And I think that's how most people ski is either with their family or they have a group of friends. You know, you don't just usually wake up one day and say, oh, I'm going to go skiing by myself.
|00:05:09| Tom Kelly: You know, it's interesting because you need someone to introduce you, and we're going to talk about that as we get into some of the programs that you've been involved with here at Ski Utah. But when you think back to that time, was it the being with friends? Was it getting out of the house? Was it the exhilaration of going down a hill in the wind, in your face? What were the things when you were a young girl that really fired you up about skiing?
|00:05:30| Raelene Davis: Well, when I was in Vernal, it was about getting out and just doing something and being. I mean, what kid doesn't like snow? You know, it's making snowballs, making snow angels. And so skiing was just a natural thing to, to enjoy. But later, of course, it was about being with friends because I didn't want to sit home on a Saturday when all my friends were going skiing and riding the bus up to the ski areas. You know, you'd have a lot of fun on those buses, especially in Colorado, because the bus ride was, you know, a couple of hours and we just had so much fun on those weekends.
|00:06:07| Tom Kelly: Now you spent some time in Austria as well, right?
|00:06:10| Raelene Davis: I did, I was on a semester abroad program in Salzburg, and as part of that, a semester abroad program through Brigham Young University, we took a ski class. And so, every weekend during those six months I was there, we went skiing.
|00:06:25| Tom Kelly: Where did you go?
|00:06:26| Raelene Davis: Oh, you know what? I don't even know if I could remember all of those little ski areas because there are so many. But we did get to to some of them, like Innsbruck, the, the bigger areas. And, you know, I can't remember. I'd have to look back through my scrapbook.
|00:06:40| Tom Kelly: Well, the thing is too, with Austria there are ski areas literally everywhere. I mean, if folks if you. Sorry, I'm going to diverge from skiing for a minute, but if you really want an amazing experience. Austria has so many of these small little areas and they have big areas like the Arlberg as well. It's it's something to aspire to. So, you know, when you were doing that, did you pick up anything new or different? The culture obviously is a lot different, but what were some of your takeaways from having skied a little bit in Austria?
|00:07:09| Raelene Davis: Well, like you said, the culture is so different. It's more of a way of life there than a recreational activity. And one thing that I laugh at when I go back and look through my scrapbook are the lift tickets, because they were just little paper lift tickets, and you attach them with a rubber band onto your jacket, which I thought that was so unusual. And so I saved those little rubber bands and the lift ticket because I look at them and laugh. You know how far we've come since then. But really it was about it was about the culture. And I was young, so we didn't partake in the apres ski life like we do today. But it was. Yeah, it was more of a way of life than just, hey, let's learn how to ski and go up on weekends.
|00:07:52| Tom Kelly: Raelene, let's talk about your role here at Ski Utah. It all started on April 1st, 1985, I think. So how did how did you fall into the role here all the way back in 1985?
|00:08:04| Raelene Davis: So I was living in Washington, D.C., and my sister, who lived in Denver, introduced me to my husband. We got married, and we knew that we wanted to live in Utah because we were both from here. We knew that it provided good recreational opportunities and good family values. So, raising a family here was important to us. And when I moved here, I looked for a job and it was so tough for women back in the mid-80s to find really good, nice paying jobs. And one day, my husband brought home a Deseret News and we were living in Provo, and there was a job offer in Salt Lake at Ski Utah doing marketing. And I thought, well, I'll, you know, go up and apply. And I met Danny Richardson and had a great interview with him and he hired me. I was so blessed to get that job. And when he hired me, he said, look at this job as a stepping stone. Well, it's been a really big stepping stone because I've never left. So anyway. But it was it was really through the newspaper that I found this job.
|00:09:15| Tom Kelly: What do you think were some of the attributes that Danny saw in you back in 1985 to give you the opportunity to get that marketing job?
|00:09:24| Raelene Davis: Well, we had, I don't know, when you meet someone, and you have a connection. That connection was there. We had both skied a little area in West Virginia called Blackwater Falls. We had cross country skied there at one time, not together, but that was a connection we made, and I'm not really sure what he saw on me, but. But I really appreciate what he saw and I owe my career basically to him.
|00:09:51| Tom Kelly: You know what you mentioned, those little points of connection. And having hired a lot of people over the years, as you have to, it really oftentimes comes down to that little connecting point that, ah, that person has just elevated a little bit because we have some little thing in common.
|00:10:08| Raelene Davis: Yeah, exactly. And, you know, and that that just happened with us. And naturally, there was a… I think he could see the passion that I had not just for skiing, because at that time I wasn't a huge skier, but I had passion for Utah. I had passion for marketing and for publications and photography and those things that that were required of the job. And I think he sensed that.
|00:10:37| Tom Kelly: What were some of the things you did on the job? I know this is ridiculous to ask you to go back there to that time, but in, in like your first month or 2 or 3 months. What were some of the things that you worked on?
|00:10:49| Raelene Davis: Oh my goodness, Tom, you're asking me to pull back in the wayback of my memory here, but.
|00:10:54| Tom Kelly: Or you can make it up. Yeah.
|00:10:56| Raelene Davis: I love it. You know, when I first started at Ski Utah, I really wanted I had come from Washington, DC, and they had a metro system where you put your card in, you'd put $20 on it, and you'd ride the metr,o and you'd take $1.50 off. And I really wanted Utah to come up with a program where you could actually have a lift ticket that you could preload, and then as you went to a ski area, it would take the money off. Well, no one was interested in in listening to me, I don't know, because I was a woman or because I was young or I don't know what it was. But it's funny because today we pretty much have that. But the things that we worked on were very different because we had to do everything by mail, you know, or pick up the phone or mail something. There was there were no there was no computer. There were no fax machines or anything. So it was. Yeah. It was really different.
|00:11:54| Tom Kelly: Do you think, thinking back to the fact you had to mail everything, that really it's a completely different perspective than what we have in marketing today.
|00:12:06| Raelene Davis: Oh absolutely. It wasn't you know, I needed in five seconds. You really took your time and thought about things because once you put that in the mail, it was gone and you weren't going to communicate with that person for a few days. So you couldn't just say, oh, let's just change that one little thing and resend it. So you had to be you had to be very intentional. Not that you don't have to be today, but you really had to be intentional back then when you went through the mail.
|00:12:33| Tom Kelly: I want to go back for a minute to the little debit card pass that you talked about that you'd experienced on the Metro in Washington. As I look at this, Raelene, you really were the visionary then beyond for the icon and the epic and all the passes we've got today. Right? Oh, yeah.
|00:12:47| Raelene Davis: I'll take full credit for that.
|00:12:49| Tom Kelly: Well, you really should in very broad scopes because we're going to dive more deeply into this. But when you look at your role over 40 years, what are some of the evolutionary points that you've gone through?
|00:13:03| Raelene Davis: Oh, yeah. There have been a lot. Again, we talked about the mail and the phone. We … back in the 80s, we purchased 800 Ski Utah toll-free number for $5,000. That was a huge amount of money back then to get a toll-free number. But man, it was amazing because now people could call us free of charge and our phones just started ringing off the hook. We had, I think eight lines at the time and they were always ringing. Also, when fax machines came out, we had to have three separate board meetings to get approval to buy a fax machine. We also had to send a. We had to send a letter to our members asking them if we were to get a fax machine. Would you? Would you use it? Would you accept faxes from us? And I think back on that and it's like, oh man, that was archaic. Right. And then certainly the evolution of producing a Winter Vacation Planner, 100 pages, printing half a million copies of those, mailing them out to people. And then we evolved to, you know, the internet. We have a website now. Then it evolved to social media. So just the evolution of of how we communicate with our customers is has been really fun. The other thing is we used to spend a lot of time and money working with travel agents. Not so much. Today, with the exception of the international market, domestic travel agents have not gone away. But we don't work. Really work with them anymore. So that was a big evolution for us.
|00:14:45| Tom Kelly: Have you worked with airlines in a similar way across your career? I know that right now you're deeply ensconced with with Delta, which provides great service here to Utah. But have airlines always been a part of the equation for you?
|00:14:59| Raelene Davis: Yes, they have. We have always worked with them. When Western Airlines was in operation, we were partnered with them. We were partnered with Southwest Airlines when they first moved here to Utah. And then when Delta came on, you know, we like to say that all of our partners are really first in class. So it's it's critical for us to work with the airlines because like you said earlier, 60% of our skier visits come from destination visitors. So they more than likely will will fly here than drive.
|00:15:30| Tom Kelly: If we look at Raelene Davis today, how would you describe your job here in 2025? Yeah.
|00:15:37| Raelene Davis: My job doesn't end. It's like 24 over seven. You know, I used to have summers off. Not summers off, but it would slow down. I would go home at night. There was no internet or computers. So once you left the office, you really left the office. Not anymore. I mean, you're you're on all the time. It's coming up with new ideas, communicating with with people. Um, yeah, it's it's very different today than it was 20 years ago or 40 years ago.
|00:16:05| Tom Kelly: You also have the operations tag on your title. So what does that entail beyond marketing.
|00:16:11| Raelene Davis: So that is overseeing the budget, making sure we bring in the money and spend it wisely. We are a 501C6 organization. We do not receive federal or state money. We're not we're not a state organization. We do apply for and receive grants of sorts and all the rest of the money we have to earn through sponsorships, through membership dues, advertising opportunities. And so it's overseeing all of that to make sure that we have the money to do the marketing. And then it's also just overseeing the office, making sure everybody's happy, making sure there's a fun vibe in the office. And yeah, just all the operational things that aren't as sexy as the marketing and promotion.
|00:17:01| Tom Kelly: Well, let's talk about the Ski Utah brand. And one of the things that has certainly been evident to me is the uniqueness of the Ski Utah brand, and what has been done over the years to really create that brand feel. When you look at the Ski Utah brand and it's up on the wall here in the office. What do you see? What are the attributes of the Ski Utah brand that you want to convey to the world?
|00:17:26| Raelene Davis: Well, Ski Utah, I mean, our unique selling position is we have the greatest snow on Earth. That's undeniable. It's proven in a court of law. I mean, it's it's great. We love that. And we will never abandon that. And I hope Mother Nature never turns her back on us, because that is the essence of, of Utah and ski Utah being able to promote that also accessibility. We have the most accessible ski resorts in the world. And again, no one can take that away from us. So when you think of when you think of Utah and then Ski Utah promoting that, those are the two things that come to mind when you think of Ski Utah as an organization. I think of family passion, of creativity, and just a sense of belonging. I mean, a lot of people at Ski Utah have been here ten, 15, 20 years. So we're not a … we're not a journeyman Burnham or whatever that saying is here at ski Utah, we really do enjoy what we do and we enjoy one another.
|00:18:35| Tom Kelly: When I was making notes for the interview today, I put down people, programs, and partnerships. And when I look at Ski Utah, I see all of those things. And we have a skew to a board meeting coming up. And those are great occasions, not just for a board of directors to sit around a table, but for the whole industry. And that's resorts, it's equipment manufacturers and distributors, it's hoteliers, restaurants, operators and others to come together, talk about the people that really form the brand of Ski Utah.
|00:19:07| Raelene Davis: So Tom, this is our organization is really unique. No other state ski association is like Ski Utah. When we sit around the table, whether it's a board meeting or a marketing meeting, or a PR meeting, we share ideas. And that's very unusual for one, resort to share an idea with another resort and to to talk about what they're doing and how maybe another resort could piggyback and do the same thing. Uh, the people have been so friendly and so kind and gracious and just fun loving. While they're hard-working, they like to enjoy themselves and they love to play in the mountains. And so being around them is infectious and contagious. And you, you feel that energy. And so I love I love our ski Utah family, not just the ten people who work in this office. But again, like you said, the whole membership, uh, the industry here in Utah, we're all very, very connected.
|00:20:14| Tom Kelly: And that's something that didn't just happen. It's really been cultivated over years, hasn't it?
|00:20:19| Raelene Davis: I'd like to think so. Sure.
|00:20:22| Tom Kelly: We're with Raelene Davis, the VP of marketing and operations here at Ski Utah. We're celebrating her 40th anniversary here at Ski Utah. We're going to take a quick show break and we'll be right back here on Last Chair.
|00:20:36| Tom Kelly: We are back now at the Ski Utah office in Salt Lake City. It is continuing to snow outside. Uh, I think we should probably head up there this afternoon. Raelene. Raelene Davis, VP of marketing and operations for Ski Utah, is with me here today. Raelene, I want to dive into, some of the promotions that you've done over the years. Talk about some of the programs that you've created. And I want to start out and go back on the technology front. You shared the story about the one 800 line. I'm curious, do you still have one 800 Ski Utah?
|00:21:07| Raelene Davis: We still have it, but I don't know that anybody uses it. No. It's great. Ever promoted it?
|00:21:11| Tom Kelly: I did one of those kind of programs when I was at the US ski team. It was called the US Ski Team Hotline. We didn't have a 1-800 hundred number, but I can still remember the number that we had. And I would do these recorded messages, and I have no idea if anybody calls that today. I haven't updated it in 20 years. So but let's talk about when the internet came in, and Ski Utah was one of the first. And I'm going to kind of. Time this back out to probably the 80s into the 90s, into the 90s when you started to pioneer this. But when you saw the internet coming on as a marketer, what were some of the thoughts running through your mind?
|00:21:47| Raelene Davis: Well, first of all, that was back in 1995. Tom and Cathy Miller, who was with the Park City Visitors Bureau, she and I were in a meeting and they were talking about this World Wide Web, and we could not wrap our minds around it. I was like, what in the world is this thing, you know? And I know Mike. Mike Goar, President or Vice President Gore was talking about it, and it was on the news every night. And we just couldn't understand. And we had a meeting with with a company here in Utah. And they walked us through the whole process. And, all of a sudden it's like, yeah, you know what? This is going to be big. And we were so fortunate to secure ski Utah.com because so many companies at that time didn't secure their own name and other people were buying them up, and then they were paying outrageous amounts for them. So, you know, we really were pioneers in that regard. In, securing 800 Ski Utah and joining the World Wide Web.
|00:22:50| Tom Kelly: When was your first website? Was it in 95? 95, yes. And do you do you have any vision when you look at what you have today, which is this very sophisticated, information-rich site? Can you think back to what it looked like back in 95?
|00:23:05| Raelene Davis: Oh, it was so basic. I mean, it I don't even remember exactly what it looked like, but it didn't have so many pages like we have today. And we listed all of our members, and we listed some fun things to do. And we had all of our resorts on there, but not like today where we have, you know, blogs and stories and photos and videos and all of that amazing eye candy. Plus, we now have a booking engine, so we've gone from very basic to really sophisticated website.
|00:23:38| Tom Kelly: I would imagine back in 1995 there wasn't any transactional capability. So it's really more just an electronic brochure, right? Exactly. Yeah. And then as the years went on, social media started to come to the front. Facebook and other platforms came onto the scene. How did you ease or move quickly into that era?
|00:24:00| Raelene Davis: Well, we did move quite quickly into that, and we realized early that, you know, the saying content is king, that we needed to have really good content. And our content director, Hailey Klotz, she's amazing. She curates so many great stories. We have ambassadors who work for us. We have athletes who we photograph and video. We have Martha, who works on our videos, and Chris who works on our photos. You know, Tom, it's it's not just about words. It's really about imagery. And so we used to hire or buy photos back in the day. And now we, we have a couple of three photographers actually on staff who can take great images. We hire amazing photographers and videographers. And it really is about eye candy. And the words are kind of secondary.
|00:24:59| Tom Kelly: Yeah. That is, I mean, we're a very visual society. Now, speaking of that, your winter vacation planner, which is a paper book and goes back quite a few years. You actually were pretty innovative in how you put that together. I know a lot of state associations do that, but your partnership with ski and outdoor magazines to get that polybag together with traditional magazines that skiers love to receive. That was a real important tipping point for you.
|00:25:27| Raelene Davis: It was. We were the first real magazine or vacation planner that any of these magazines allowed to polybag with their magazine. And we we printed half a million copies of our winter vacation planner, and we would polybag 100,000 copies of them. And through a partnership with the Utah Office of Tourism, they helped pay for this. And it was it was amazing. We partnered with a ski magazine, powder magazine, GQ, Men's Journal, Outside magazine, Orange County Magazine. I mean, the list goes on and on. And it really was the first, the first of its kind, and I, I loved it. We got so many people calling us saying, thank you for sending me this. I want to book a ski vacation to Utah. And of course, that was the purpose, right? To inspire them and then get them to actually book.
|00:26:22| Tom Kelly: Do you still print the vacation planner?
|00:26:24| Raelene Davis: No, we stopped printing that. And then we we decided that instead of doing a winter vacation planner because we had the internet, that we would produce a magazine. And we produced Ski Utah Magazine for about ten years, and it was 100 pages. Beautiful stories, great imagery, and we would send that out. We polybagged that with some of the magazines as well. Once we got rid of the winter vacation planner. So we were in that Polly bagging business for a while.
|00:26:55| Tom Kelly: Well, it was a good business, but it was replaced by the internet. And when you when you think back on the vacation planner, a very static piece that would go out to people in the fall, and it would the words are going to be the same on that paper in February. But now you have the ability to be dynamic on the internet. How has that really helped the whole booking process?
|00:27:15| Raelene Davis: Well, we have to be dynamic because the resorts, their lift ticket pricing is dynamic. Hotel pricing is dynamic. If we just listed a price there and it stayed, that would be deceiving to the consumer. So yeah, it's it's just a natural thing. You have to do it.
|00:27:32| Tom Kelly: I want to talk about some of the promotions that you've done. And one is I think back and I think this was in the early 90s, you did a partnership with Busch Beer, and you took a ski ramp and crushed ice around the country. That was a big deal in the early 90s.
|00:27:49| Raelene Davis: Tom, it was a really big deal and it was so much fun. We took an instructor, Nancy Kronthaler, from Snowbird with us, and we went to Jones Beach in New York, Laclede's Landing on July 4th in Saint Louis, which it was like 104 degrees. It was so hot and humid. And we went to Huntington Beach in California and to Union Square in New York. And we built this. It was like a 100-foot ramp. It was crazy. And we taught lessons on this plastic ramp that ran off into this icy melted or this melted ice that turned into snow. And I can't believe how many lessons, I mean, lessons, not just people getting on there and skiing, but we taught lessons. And then, of course, we would give out our winter vacation planner and all sorts of fun swag and things. But it was it was a fun partnership with Bush.
|00:28:45| Tom Kelly: And somewhere along the line on those hot summer days in Saint Louis on the crushed ice, there must have been bush beer involved.
|00:28:51| Raelene Davis: Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
|00:28:53| Tom Kelly: It totally. In the spirit of skiing, you have had tremendous success internationally, and you've been a fixture at the international ski shows for many, many years. But one of the promotions that I thought was probably the most, at least in my mind, one of the most unique that you did was back around the time of the Olympics in Salt Lake City. In 2002. You did a campaign to reach British skiers where they're skiing in Europe and convince them. Come on over to Salt Lake City and come to Utah and ski. Tell us about that promo.
|00:29:26| Raelene Davis: So in 2002, when Salt Lake City hosted the games in February, we partnered with a tour operator in Great Britain, and we found out that most of their skiers went to Courchevel. So we decided that, and at that time they had houses that they owned, and the skiers from this tour operator would go and stay at these houses. And so we put together prize packages that every day during the games, we would invite the, the skiers to come into the house and watch the games, because they would be televised in the evening and, and then participate in some contests about Utah. We'd ask questions how much snow does Utah get? How many minutes is it from the airport to the ski areas. Just really basic kind of hey, you need to know these these answers. And then we would give away these prizes. And that happened every night during the 2002 games. And it was great because all of a sudden it was like we were taking the world to them and then inviting them back to us, and we ended up getting a lot of British skiers. It ended up being from that time forward being our number 2 or 3 international market, and I think that had a lot to do with it.
|00:30:45| Tom Kelly: It's such an innovative idea. Were you over in Courchevel for that or were you here for the games?
|00:30:49| Raelene Davis: I was here at the games, and we hired some of the tour operator folks to represent us while we were there. While I was here.
|00:30:57| Tom Kelly: What a clever idea. I want to talk about some of the ski shows you've done around the world. I mean, you've been a fixture at the London show Sydney all over the world. Just share some reflections back on the times that you've spent meeting new international friends and enticing them to come here to Utah.
|00:31:11| Raelene Davis: You know, Tom, it's one of my favorite things to do. I just love telling people about Utah and what I love about it and helping them plan their trips, but I have to. I have to tell you the one of the things that I love the most, and I just chuckle when I think about this, is I always take a huge box of American candy, which I'm not sure why, because European candy and Australian candy is so much better than American candy. But I take all this candy and I put it on the on the … in the booth, and people come up and they're so excited and inevitably they will pick up a Tootsie Roll and they will say, what is this, Tom? Have you ever tried to explain what a Tootsie Roll was? It's really hard, but that is my most fun thing when I. When somebody picks up a Tootsie Roll, it's like, oh my goodness. Now I have to explain what this is. But having that little bit of America in the booth really draws them. Also. … We wear really fun shirts and things to draw them in. We have activations in the booth. We've had athletes come into the booth. We had Eddie the Eagle in our booth one time when we were in London and just to talk to people about how different Utah is from European skiing and, and also how different it is from other US and Canadian resorts.
|00:32:38| Tom Kelly: You were very involved, I believe, with Bernie Weichsel, my good friend who started Ski USA. How did that factor into your promotions of Utah?
|00:32:48| Raelene Davis: Well, I loved Ski USA. We joined in 1992 and I believe ski USA went through what about the early 2000 and we as America would join in together and have us have a great presence at these ski shows. So within the show there would be the ski USA section and Utah, Colorado, Vermont, Wyoming, Idaho. We would all have our sections within that area. And I believe it really moved the needle on getting people from out of our country to come to visit, especially the Rocky Mountains.
|00:33:28| Tom Kelly: One last thing on the international shows that you've done, talk about the people you've met. I know you've forged long-term friendships with your international partners as you've traveled the world. Tell us about those friendships and what it means for you to go back to those places every fall.
|00:33:46| Raelene Davis: Well, people always ask me, you know, where's your favorite place to travel? You travel all over the world and it's, you know, that answer of wherever I am, that's my favorite place. I love every place I've been and the people I've met. We have. I really have a lot of friendships all over the world. And if and when I ever leave Ski Utah and I travel on my own. It's nice to know that I will be able to go to those places and have people who I can share a dinner with and and do some fun things. But not only the people that I've met and forged friendships with, but I've also been able to meet some really incredible athletes. I mean, Franz Klammer was amazing to have met him. Eddie the Eagle again, you know, some of the Australian Olympians and I just, I don't know. I've been so blessed, Tom, to have met so many great people. The tour operators, Nicole Bennett with Delta Airlines. She's arriving in Utah today, actually. And so I'll get to see her again. And and just talking to people, having them come here. And then when I go back there, we can share the experience of them having come here.
|00:34:58| Tom Kelly: Yeah. It's I relate to that a lot from the role that I had and those friendships and, you know, for that time when maybe you leave ski Utah. You are going to have the ability to go back to those places around the world, call in favors, and just go and enjoy a meal with people. Yeah, it's a great experience. We've talked a lot about the marketing programs that you've engineered and really helped to boost the brand of Ski Utah, but where I really think you've made some of your greatest impact are the programs right back here at home, right back here in our state of Utah that don't necessarily bring in more people to our state, but they really foster the spirit of the sport here. And the one I want to start with is the fourth grade. Learn to ski in the fifth grade passport program. These are programs that have really been pivotal to getting kids in our state into the sport. How did those evolve and what have they manifested over their tenure?
|00:35:51| Raelene Davis: So back in the late 1980s, we were discussing at our board meeting about how can we get more children involved in the sport. And Jack Turner back then was he was here in Utah, and he was talking about, You know, we used to have ski clubs, and we used to have these ski races and things, and then those went away, and we thought, well, what can we do? How can we how can we bring kids back into the sport? Well, through some research, we discovered that in Utah, fourth and fifth graders are learning about the state of Utah. They're studying Utah. And also we learned through SIA, through their research that a ten, 11 year old is really when your body is able to do certain things. And and also you're you're starting to make life choices, which seems kind of strange when you're that young to make some life choices, but recreational choices. And so we honed in on that research and said, let's do something with fourth and fifth graders. And so we contracted with Jo Garuccio, who she is a, a world champion, uh, triathlete. Triathlete. And she was. She's also a has a master's in physical education and and designing programs. And so she wrote a curriculum for us that we've been using until today, basically with modifications. But we have introduced thousands of fourth graders into our Learn to Ski program. It's a six-week week, we do five weeks in the school where we teach balance and flexibility and how to put skis on and take them off, and how to do your boots.
|00:37:37| Raelene Davis: And then the last, the last week, the sixth week, we take them up to the mountain and give them a lesson. And from that evolved the fifth-grade passport program, which Colorado was the first one to start the fifth-grade program. And we quickly joined with them, as did Maine. And we offered the passport, which was a free at that time … pass that all fifth graders got to ski three times that each Utah resort. And then as that evolved, we were like, well, if they're in fifth grade, their fourth grade, they're learning. Fifth grade, they're practicing. Let's hone them off the fifth-grade passport and do a sixth-grade passport where they got one time. And then a few years ago, we're like, that's crazy. Let's just do fifth and sixth grade three times. And then, you know what? Those kids that did the fourth grade, let's bring them in. So now we have a fourth, fifth, and sixth-grade passport. It's $69 until December 1st and then 89 after. And these kids who get that, we have about 10 to 11,000 kids every year participate in that program. And Tom, they get three times at each Utah ski area. We have 15 ski areas. That's 45 days of skiing for $69 or $89. That's incredible. Right? That's who wouldn't do that if you were a parent of a fourth, fifth or sixth grader?
|00:39:00| Tom Kelly: Well, I've got a four-year-old great granddaughter right now. So, I'm doing the math on this right now. We'll be getting one of those. It'll be a few years yet. You then extended this program. I know your good friend MaryJo Torallo, who had formerly been with Snowsports Industries America. The two of you got together and you kind of extended this awareness program anyways nationally with Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month, right?
|00:39:21| Raelene Davis: Tom, we were sitting in a coffee shop here in Salt Lake City and, and we were waiting for Senator Udall from Colorado to … he wanted to proclaim January as Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month federally. And I said to Mary Jo, I'm like, do we really have to wait for a senator to proclaim this? Why can't we just self-proclaim January as Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month? So we proposed it to the other state associations they bought off on it. We proposed it to NSAA, to PSIA and OSI and other associations, and everyone loved it. And we started it and it was in January. And I'll tell you, we got so much publicity. We were on the Today Show. We had thousands of newspaper articles and magazine articles over the course of the ten years that it existed. We put over a million, not just kids, but it was for anyone, over a million people into lessons, ski and snowboard lessons. So I really loved that program. And today we still do a version of that here in Utah. But I would like to bring something like that back.
|00:40:29| Tom Kelly: Well, one program that you initiated just a few years ago, Discover Winter, was an interesting take on getting a more diverse complement of skiers out on the slopes, and where I think a lot of organizations, when they're looking at DEI programs like that, they're looking at kids. You took a completely different approach with Discover Winter.
|00:40:49| Raelene Davis: We took a top-down approach. Tom. We … there are a lot of children's programs out there. And we started thinking, you know what if we introduced the 18 and over, and those who had children could then bring their children into the sport and those who were young as they started their families, then they would bring their children. We have. So we started that in January of 2022, and we have had 850 participants to date. And I can tell you, though, about 87% of those have gone on to either purchase season passes or some kind of pass to keep skiing. And when I see these graduates out on the slopes, they have new coats, new pants, new skis, new snowboards. You know, they've really enjoyed this experience, and most of them are immigrants who have never seen snow before or have moved here from Florida or Mississippi or Texas. And to see this excitement and joy on their faces of learning a sport that's hard when you're an adult and then enjoying this white winter that they've never had before. It just does my heart good.
|00:42:17| Tom Kelly: I had the opportunity to meet Domeda Duncan from the Our Sundays group. In fact, she was on the podcast last year about a year ago, and I remember we met at, I think it was the Ski Utah event up at Stio on Main Street in Park City, and I hadn't met her before, but her enthusiasm for skiing was just contagious.
|00:42:38| Raelene Davis: Exactly. She was one of our first participants. And Tom, after two years, she actually got her level one PSIA credential. I mean, isn't that crazy? We've had a few participants go on to get their Psia level one instruction.
|00:42:56| Tom Kelly: A couple of more things in kind of programs and partnerships. One of the things that has struck me, and it kind of occurred to me when Snowbasin got number one in the Ski Magazine Reader Survey poll this year. That has been a spot that has been regularly taken by Utah resorts. You've really seen some innovative marketing and innovative operations developments at Utah resorts that have really put the resorts in the national spotlight.
|00:43:27| Raelene Davis: That's right Tom. We were very happy to to hear that Snowbasin got number one resort from SKI Magazine readers this year, and they've done amazing things. Davy Ratchford took over as general manager several years ago. And he's a very creative marketing person, and he's done some, some really great programs. And they're in fact, one of the programs that they have that has been recognized nationally as they've won the NSAA Conversion Cup twice now, which I don't think any other resort has ever won it twice. Also, Deer Valley is almost always, with the exception of this year, number one resort. They're always number one in food service. Food and service and grooming. Powder Mountain has been recognized for ever for a lot of things that, you know, they used to be kind of a sleeper resort, and now they're definitely on the map. Snowbird’s marketing. Unbelievable. I mean, their campaign, the past several years, really, in my mind, I was asked to to to select a resort that I thought did an amazing job of marketing. And Snowbird was, you know, really up there, top of my list. So all of our Utah resorts, I'm so proud of them for what they've been able to do nationally and to be recognized.
|00:44:48| Tom Kelly: A little bit of a preview, but we will have Michael Rueckert, the marketing director for Snowbasin on Last Chair. That will be coming up in March. So look for that episode. I'm going to wrap it up in just a minute and talk about some of your honors. But before I do that, I was just wondering, as you think back on your career, do you have any advice or counsel to young professionals who are passionate about skiing or snowboarding as to what they can do to get into the world that you've been in and to help sell the sport of sports, of skiing and snowboarding.
|00:45:21| Raelene Davis: Well, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said passionate. You have to have a passion for this industry if you want to work in it. Again. People don't change jobs very often in the ski industry because once you get in, you really love it. And you might you might change within the industry a little bit. But I would say get involved by volunteering. Volunteering with a program like Discover Winter. Uh, come in and meet Hailey Klotz, who hires our ambassadors and bloggers and, athletes to be present at the resorts. Take the initiative to meet the marketing directors. We are starting a program or partnering with Salt Lake Community College on their new program to get more people involved in the technical side of the resorts, you know, the snow engineering and the snowcat driving and lift maintenance and all of that. So look around and see what's available at the universities and then just be present and get to know people in the industry.
|00:46:31| Tom Kelly: You know, I want to just piggyback on that comment. I think back to the early part of my career, I lived in fear of thinking that I could talk to those people. I look at it now, and I love it when people come up to me, and I'm sure you do too. When someone comes up to you, a 20-year-old comes up to you. They're passionate about the sport and they ask you about how they can get started. You love to talk to people like that.
|00:46:53| Raelene Davis: I do, and I do quite often. People will call me and say, hey, I'm a student at the university, do you have 15 minutes? I could come in and talk to you, and I might not have it that day or the next day, but at some point I will, and I would appreciate that. Yeah, I would love to share my knowledge.
|00:47:09| Tom Kelly: It's really great fun. I want to talk about awards and honors, and sometimes I know if you get a lot of recognition, it's sometimes maybe even a little embarrassing, but it's also a source of amazing pride. So I'm just going to go through a little bit of a list here. You were an Olympic torchbearer in 2002 for the Olympics. In 2010, you were inducted into the Utah Tourism Hall of Fame. 2014 an NCSA, I'm sorry, an NSAA Lifetime Achievement Award 2020 for just this past fall, Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame and you're nominated for the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. Reflect on those and not so much them individually, but just in general. What does recognition mean to you after a career? You've had a blast in this career. You know, it's almost like not a job. But what does recognition mean in your heart?
|00:47:57| Raelene Davis: Well, first of all, Tom, I'm a person of faith, and I believe that God gave me talents, and I would hope that I have been a good steward of those talents and have shared them with people. I will take no recognition on my own because I have a great team here at Ski Utah who, without them, none of those awards would have been possible because I can't do it alone. But I, I feel very honored and humbled to have been recognized by my peers in my industry. And I, I hope that others here at Ski Utah will will be able to also receive the same recognition. But yeah, just humbled and honored.
|00:48:44| Tom Kelly: Well, we appreciate what you've done. And I know this is just an audio podcast, but she's smiling through the whole thing here. So that's the kind of spirit, Raelene, that I know you've brought to the sport for so many years. We're going to close it out with our Fresh Tracks section. So I've got a few closing questions for you. I'm just really curious, what are your lifetime Delta miles flying all around the globe? Do you have any idea?
|00:49:08| Raelene Davis: Well, it's it's well over a million, Tom. I'd like to be. I'd like to. I'd like to say that I could belong to the Delta 360 club, but not quite yet. But I do have quite a few miles.
|00:49:19| Tom Kelly: Well, you're still at it, though, so there is time. Do you have a memorable ski run that you've taken here in Utah? Maybe it's just a run you like to go to. Or maybe it's like one incredibly memorable, memorable day.
|00:49:31| Raelene Davis: Well, all the time is memorable, but I'd probably say the first time I ever skied the Cirque at Snowbird. I'm not this amazing powder skier, like many here in the office are where most people in the office are. But the first time I ever skied the Cirque, I was so scared. And when I finished that, it was just I looked back up and then I would ride the tram up and I'd be like, wow, I did that. Now, today my my most memorable runs are with my grandchildren through Bucky's front yard and Ruby's tail or whatever. I mean, like all these crazy tree runs at Deer Valley. So yeah, whatever I'm doing is I just love.
|00:50:16| Tom Kelly: Have you found the little cabin in the woods there?
|00:50:18| Raelene Davis: The … What is it called? It's, Ontario cabin. Is that the one you mean?
|00:50:24| Tom Kelly: No, this is a different one. This is, um. I think it's in Bucky's Backyard. I don't get there too often, but somebody introduced it to me once. Check it out, ask the grandkids. They'll probably know. Um, you've traveled the world promoting Ski Utah. What's the most unusual experience you've ever had at a foreign ski show.
|00:50:46| Raelene Davis: Oh, well, I don't know about that, except for that Tootsie Roll experience. Well, that.
|00:50:50| Tom Kelly: That actually, by the way, when you said that I was. I love Tootsie Rolls, but I was thinking, how in the world would you explain it, though? I think that probably is. Is your that's your answer, right? Yeah. How about a favorite ski resort food item that you absolutely crave?
|00:51:07| Raelene Davis: Oh no question. It's Deer Valley turkey chili and Deer Valley carrot cake.
|00:51:12| Tom Kelly: You can't beat a lunch like that, can you?
|00:51:14| Raelene Davis: It's pretty good.
|00:51:15| Tom Kelly: Raelene, what's the craziest question you've ever been asked?
|00:51:20| Raelene Davis: Well, Tom, I was with some travel agents on a fam tour, and they were here in the summer, and they asked, so where does the white go when the snow melts? And I kind of chuckled to myself. And then I said, well, it turns into white water and we go rafting.
|00:51:38| Tom Kelly: You can't beat that. And then lastly. Think about Utah skiing and describe it for me in just one word. So greatest snow on Earth won't work. Okay.
|00:51:54| Raelene Davis: Um, okay. Well, I'm going to do two things, Tom, I'm going to tell you what's one word for skiing and one word for Utah skiing. So one word for Utah skiing is powder, and one word for skiing is freedom.
|00:52:10| Tom Kelly: Beautiful I love it. Raelene Davis, thank you so much for what you've done in 40 years. I mean, it's been fun to work alongside of you and to be a part of Ski Utah. And thanks for initiating this podcast idea some years ago, and we hope you're continuing to put your passion into this sport for years to come.
|00:52:28| Raelene Davis: Well, Tom, thank you very much. I really appreciate it. And I just always love being with you. So let's go hit the slopes. There's a lot of snow out there.
|00:52:35| Tom Kelly: It's still dumping. Raelene Davis, thank you for joining us on the last chair.
|00:52:38| Raelene Davis: Thank you Tom.
