Train the pass closure as a positive!

When Highway 20 closes it signals the start to our winter season!  The success of our community (and your business) comes from winter visitation!  Train your staff to positively sell the route to Winthrop in the Winter!

Here are some sales tips for staff:

Highway 20 over the North Cascades is now OPEN to snowmobiles and skis.  This exciting announcement signals winter has come to the Methow!  

Routes to Winthrop from the West Side of Washington State include scenic Highway 2 over Stevens Pass or I90 through the Mountains to Sound Greenway over Snoqualamie Pass and Blewett Pass. 

The route to Winthrop from the West Side of the State is easy.  It is 3 left turns and a thousand "Ahhs".  

The route to Winthrop travels up the mighty Columbia River and then up the stunning Methow River.  

There are great visitor amenities along the way.  (make a list of your recommendations.  Maybe they include the Anjou Bakery, Lone Pine Espresso, the dam bathrooms and the Sweet River Bakery)  

Don't Say

The Pass is Closed.  (without the excitement of why!  Because winter is here!)

"The long way"  Never tell anyone they have to go "the long way."   It is simply the way to the Methow in the winter.

Don't assume or project onto the visitor that "going around" is a burden.  The route up the Columbia and up the Methow Valley is incredibly beautiful with fantastic visitor amenities along the way!  The journey here is part of the thrill of coming to the Methow.  You are coming to Paradise, enjoy the ride!  

Consider brainstorming more fun, positive ways to sell the journey at your next staff meeting!  

When will Methow Trails start grooming? How much snow do we need?

Here is a great informative video from Methow Trails that answers some of the common questions such as:

How much snow does the Valley need to start grooming?
How many days might we expect to be open?
How does grooming work?

Know Your Canadian Holidays!

List of Canadian holidays in 2016

***MAKE SPECIAL NOTE OF THE FEB 8 Family Day Holiday Weekend ****

Holiday	Date in 2016	Observance
New Year's Day	January 1, Friday	National
Islander Day	February 15, Monday	PEI
Louis Riel Day	Feb 15, Monday	MB
Viola Desmond Day	February 15, Monday	NS
Family Day	February 15, Monday (Feb 8 in BC)	BC, AB, SK, ON
Valentine's Day	February 14, Sunday	Not a stat holiday
Leap Day	February 29, Monday	Not a holiday
St. Patrick's Day	March 17, Thursday	Not a stat holiday
Good Friday	March 25, Friday	National except QC
Easter Monday	March 28, Monday	QC
Mother's Day	May 8, Sunday	Not a stat holiday
Victoria Day	May 23, Monday	National except NB, NS, NL
Father's Day	June 19, Sunday	Not a holiday
Aboriginal Day	June 21, Tuesday	NWT
St. Jean Baptiste Day	June 24, Friday	QC
Canada Day	July 1, Friday	National
Civic Holiday	August 1, Monday	AB, BC, SK, ON, NB, NU
Labour Day	September 5, Monday	National
Thanksgiving	October 10, Monday	National except NB, NS, NL
Halloween	October 31, Monday	Not a holiday
Remembrance Day	November 11, Friday	National except MB, ON, QC, NS
Christmas Day	December 25, Sunday	National
Boxing Day	December 26, Monday	ON

Canadians at Par the Winter

Exciting Winter News:

Methow Trails, the Loup Loup Ski Bowl and the Winthrop Ice Rink are all teaming up to offer winter recreation for Canadians at Par.  The exchange rate is not in the favor of the Canadians so encourage winter visitation to the Valley these three organizations will sell passes to Canadians at their dollar (or Loonie).  Information can be found on the Methow Trails, Ski the Loup and Winthrop Ice Rink websites.

Dear Winthrop Chamber Members and Friends,

At the last week's Winthrop chamber Monthly Membership Meeting, James DeSalvo, Executive Director of Methow Trails, presented an update on the economic analysis report Methow Trails has recently completed.  The report not only focused on the impact of recreation and trails on the local economy but also has broader information for the Methow Valley. This report contains good information and we wanted to let you know about it.  This goes along with the Chamber’s strategic objective to increase tourism outside the busy summer months.

Below are notes from the meeting.

The Executive Summary can found at  http://www.methowtrails.org/about-us/

·        What economic opportunity exists for me in the next 15 years? (Almost double current spending)

·        Is my business growth keeping pace with the growth of trail recreation? (Last 10 years average annual skier days have increased 12%/year)

·        How can I make my property more valuable? (9% increase in value if location on or within ¼ mile of trail)

The data in here is very instructive but what is even more valuable is comparing the 3 economic analysis from the last 17 years in order to predict the future. Three economic indicators shared were; total expenditures by trail users, jobs directly related to trail users, and tax revenue from trail users. What this data indicates across the board is growth.

GROWTH IN RECREATION-

·        Expenditures $12.4M/year. Doesn’t include jobs or taxes. Forecast in 15 years this will nearly double to $22.5M/year.

o   Skier days annual average increase of 12%/year. Your pool of recreation based customers is growing 12%/year

Questions to ask yourself:  

·        Am I seeing this growth in my business and am I tapping into this these customers? How do we as a business community build that number? 

Methow Trails spends a lot of time working on this internally; kids ski free, increasing diversity of users and seasons, low snow contingency plans, supporting events partners, etc.

·        JOBS-152 FTE/year . (In last 10 years jobs grew +19% in the trails sector while Methow Valley job average declined -1.5%). Forecast in 15 years increase 71% to 260 FTE/year.

·        TAXES- $696,296/year in tax revenue due to trail users. 15 years increase 72% to $1.2M Taxes

Great visitor story on Winthrop

Here's a great story on our town with some interesting insights.

It appears that the US border patrol agents are not doing us any favors but westernization appears to be doing us many!   Note how the photographer tried to capture as much as she could without modern influences and note how when it could not be avoided, the modern signs really stands out in the photos.

The full travel story can be found here:
http://www.travelyesplease.com/travel-blog-winthrop-washington/

Sign up for the Okanogan County Alert System

A great idea for you and your business is to sign up for alerts from the Okanogan County Alert System.  Get alerts about emergencies (fire, flood, storms, road closures) and important community news.  It only takes a minute to sign up via the Okanogan Emergency Management website.

Special Thanks

If you see Louise Stevens out and about please take a moment to thank her for the lovely flowers at the welcome entrance to Winthrop. Louise of her own initiative tends to these flowers.  This means filling a lot of buckets of water from the the bike shop and walking them over to the signs.  Thanks for your dedication Louise!  They look lovely!

Open for Business

The last Winthrop Chamber meeting was arguably the best Winthrop Chamber meeting we have ever had!

Guest speaker Annie Schmidt from the Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition did a great job sharing resources for businesses in times of turmoil. If you missed this fantastic presentation we would highly recommend you consider downloading the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Stafety's "Stay Open for Business" Toolkit found on the two links from this page.  You can also contact the Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition for more resources.

Very Good Dark Sky Video

The Methow Valley is blessed to have a dark night sky but will it always stay that way and could we make it even better currently with a few simple tweaks?

This video was shared by the Okanaogan County Electric Co-op in their June monthly newsletter.  It's a very good look at what we all can do moving forward.

Trending Towards a Great Year

Update on Hotel Motel tax revenue and Sales Tax Revenue year-to-dates. Winthrop and the Methow Valley had a very good winter!

Currently Winthrop's hotel revenue is up 24% ahead of last year (which was a record-breaking year!)
Methow Valley hotel revenue is up 16% from last year.

Sales tax revenue for Winthrop and the County is up 17% over last year! Very, very strong growth.

Winthrop's Westernization an evening with John Lester and Larry Higbee

If you missed the great talk on Westernization the video is available here on YouTube. We would recommend all Winthrop businesses watch this talk.

Experience behind the scenes stories about the individuals, businesses and organizations that brought “western” to Winthrop. Guests John Lester and Larry Higbee provide an engaging, interesting and informative perspective on the town transformation that took place in 1972 and lives on today.

New App

We now have a Winthrop Washington mobile app available for free for the iPhone and Android phones. 

This new app displays and provides driving and walking directions for all of our 5 rack cards.... 
1. Top 10 Extraordinary Things to Do
2. Road Cycling
3. Mountain Biking
4. Hiking and Trail Running
5. Winter Recreation 

Please share this app with your guests. Ideally people will take the rack cards and download the app.  

The iPhone app is available via the iTunes store. The Android app is available in the Android marketplace.  

Information about the app is also available on the home page of the winthropwashington.com website and on the Winthrop Washington Blog.  

A night not to miss!

Community History Presentation with John Lester and Larry Higbee

                                                                                 

Time, Date and Location: 6:00 pm, Thursday, April 9^th at the Winthrop Barn

The public is invited to the Barn for this special Community History Presentation to experience behind the scenes stories about the individuals, businesses and organizations that brought “western” to Winthrop. Guests John Lester and Larry Higbee will provide engaging, interesting and informative perspectives on the town transformation that took place in 1972 and lives on today. The event is free and all are invited and welcome! This is a repeat performance of the talk John and Larry gave two years ago which was incredibly popular. If you missed it the first time this is your chance to hear the stories on what it took to transform our town to what it is today!  

Refreshments will be available beginning at 6:00 pm. The program will start at 6:30 pm and conclude at 8:00 pm. This program brought to you by the Winthrop Chamber. Don't miss this very special night.

 In addition to the talk, old memorabilia will be on hand including historic town photos such as these and historic scrapbooks from the 1970's. 

2014 Was a Record-Breaking Year

2014 was a good year for Winthrop.  Both sales tax revenue and hotel-motel tax revenue were at all-time highs.  Below is the year-over-year increases both these funds have seen over the past 10 years.  Note that the percentage increases shown on the charts are against the Town of Winthrop's budget. 

Sales tax revenue was 2% higher than the year previous and hotel-motel tax was 10% higher than the year previous. Over the past 10 years there has been substantial growth in both these funds.

Sales tax revenue funds a large portion of the town's operations.  Hotel-motel tax income funds Winthrop's marketing efforts and some operations of town-owned tourism facilities such as the Barn and the Ice Rink.

Free Day of Skiing for Any Season Pass Holder Anywhere

Methow Trails just started this promotion.  Use it to encourage visitation to your business!

The Methow Valley ski trails are open and continue to have great cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and fat biking. Beginning February 17, we invite ski season pass holders from any alpine or nordic ski area in North America to join us for a day on the trails for FREE.    

Ski season pass holders simply need to stop into the Methow Trails office at 309 Riverside Avenue, Winthrop, WA during normal business hours, show a valid 2015 season pass from any alpine or nordic ski area* in the US or Canada and we will provide you with a ticket to ski for free, for one day, on the Methow Valley cross-country ski trails. This offer is not good from any other Methow Trails ski vendor, rather only redeemable at the Methow Trails office. One pass, per person for one day of skiing this season. This offer is good for the remainder of this ski season. Methow Trails office hours for this promotion are Monday-Friday 9:00am - 3:00pm and Saturday and Sunday 10:00am-2:00pm.

Methow Trails salutes skiers that make an investment in snow sliding activities. A season pass is a great show of support for your favorite ski area and Methow Trails wants to add value to your investment during a winter that has been trying for many.  

Methow Trails is North America’s largest cross-country ski area with over 120 miles of perfectly groomed trails where kids 17 and under ski free everyday. The Methow Trails nordic system also has selected trails open and available to fat biking and snowshoeing. 

Daily grooming reports with real time GPS trail updates can be found at methowtrails.org, via the free Methow Trails app or by calling 509-996-3860. A full schedule of events and activities can also be found on our website at methowtrails.org.

*day and annual sno-park permits do not apply.  

Business Survey for Methow Trails

If you haven't had the opportunity to take the Methow Trails Business Survey please do so by March 1.

Methow Trails has joined forces with our local Chamber of Commerce to examine the business-related impacts made by our trail system. We aim to include as many businesses as possible within the Methow Valley region, roughly from Mazama to Pateros, to ensure that we accurately reflect related economic activity. The short survey can be completed in 10-15 minutes.

Please click here to take our Methow Valley Business Survey

Prepare for Busy

Business Alert:  PREPARE TO BE BUSY

Just a heads up about a couple of upcoming weekends that should be very busy.

This weekend, January 16-18 is of course Martin Luther King Weekend.  It is also the Race of the Methow a big youth cross-country ski race and the NW Fatbike group will also be in town.  LOTS of people.

January 23-25 is the Methow Valley Nordic Festival and a HUGE youth Hockey Tournament.  There will be an especially large demand for resturants!  Be prepared like this is a holiday weekend.  Skiers, trail runners and hockey players will be in full force.

February 6-9 expect a busy weekend as this is a Canadian Holiday: BC Family Day.  Know your Canadian Holidays!!!  Canadians love winter sports, we will see a lot in town.

February 31-16 of course is President's Weekend with tons of activities.

February 16-22 many Washington State schools have mid-winter break.  Expect good visitation all week with families in town.

March 6-8 Winthrop Balloon Festival