Tours de Sport Survey Winner for January!

As anyone who has traveled with us know, our clients receive a survey from us via email shortly after their trip with us asking how was the ski vacation, from booking the trip to the trip itself. The purpose of the survey is to help give us insight as to how we are doing as a company and to help improve upon future trips. For a few minutes of your time you get entered in our monthly drawing to win a $100 Travel Certificate that can be used on any ski vacation booked through Tours de Sport over the next 12 months to any of our many ski destinations. We will announce the winners at the beginning of each month here at our blog.

We would like to congratulate Anna D. for being chosen as the winner of our survey drawing for the month of January!

So be sure to fill out our survey when you receive it for a chance to win! Also, don't forget you can send us your pictures from your ski vacation and we will also put them up on our website as well! Even if you have traveled with us a long time ago, you can still send us your pictures for review!

Tours de Sport's New Website Design!

We have officially launched our new website design on ToursdeSport.com and have added site search! Please take it for a test drive and be sure to let us now what you think about it in the comments below.

We've given the site a fresh new look for 2008 while also adding site search, which will help you navigate the site that much easier - you can find the new search box at the top of every page at ToursdeSport.com. We have also made it easier for you to join our email list to receive out Hot Deals directly to your inbox (we typically send our hot deals out once or twice a month so don't worry about getting bombarded with unwanted email - we also do NOT sell our lists - we respect your privacy!).

We certainly hope we have made your visit to Tours de Sport a more pleasant experience with our new menu and new pages, but as always, we welcome any feedback. Thanks for visiting and enjoy your stay!

Visit Tours de Sport and Snow East Magazine at the Boston Ski Show!!!

Yes, Tours de Sport will be hitting the road in November and paying a visit to Boston, to attend the Boston Ski Show during the weekend of November 15-18 (see below for show information). This big event draws more than 40,000 winter sports enthusiasts every year, and to many people, marks the official start to the ski season. Anchored by the huge equipment, clothing, and accessory sale that Ski Market keeps making better and better every year, this 4 day celebration of all things skiing and snowboarding is not to be missed.

Make sure to stop by our booth and meet our staff. We have several giveaways planned, and many of our resort partners have given us some extra great deals that we will be passing on as Show Specials that will only be available to show attendees. We will be able to directly access our reservation system, and take live reservations during the show.

Tours de Sport is pleased to announce we will be joined at the show by our friends at Snow East magazine, who will be bringing plenty of sample issues for you to check out. As an added bonus, we will be giving a FREE one year subscription to Snow East to anyone who makes a new reservation with us at the show or within one week of getting a price quote from us at our show booth. Once you read your first issue, we are sure you will agree that Snow East is truly THE magazine for the Eastern skier/rider.

Boston SnowSports Expo details:

Bayside
Expo Center - Halls A & B
200 Mt Vernon Street
Boston, MA
617-474-6000

November 15-18, 2007

Show Hours:
Thursday, Nov. 15    4 - 10 PM
Friday, Nov. 16         4 - 10 PM
Saturday, Nov 17     10 AM - 8 PM
Sunday, Nov. 18      10 AM - 6 PM

"The Big Breakup" or "Ski Life After ASC"

If your attention strayed early this Spring from skiing to tennis or golf or maybe your long neglected garden, you might have missed one of the biggest events to affect Eastern skiing since the heated gondola cabin.

The American Skiing Company, or ASC, as it was known with either grudging admiration or outright loathing depending on your point of view, basically ceased to exist late this Spring, as each resort in the ASC family was sold off to complete the dissolution of the company. For those of you may have come in late, here is a brief synopsis of what transpired.

It all began with the December announcement that ASC was selling Steamboat Resort in Colorado for $265 million to Intrawest, that other giant of resort ownership.

On February 16th, it was announced that Mount Snow and Attitash were being sold for $73.5 million to Peak Resorts, Inc., a resort operator with ski resorts in Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Ohio. Included in the sale were the commercial cores of the Grand Summit hotels located at each resort. What is interesting here, is that this will be Peaks first foray into managing resort lodging. The sale was completed in late April.

Just four days later came the news that the big enchilada, Killington/Pico, was being sold for $83.5 million to a joint venture between SP Land Co., a Killington-based real estate development company, and Powdr Corp., a Utah ski resort company that owns several Western resorts, including Park City. The sale was completed in mid-May.

This left Sunday River and Sugarloaf as ASC's only remaining East Coast resorts, and for a good little while rumors were flying about what might happen, including Les Otten's possible interest in getting back into the ski game. Talk about things coming full circle! Les was, after all, the father of ASC back in the 1980's when he purchased Sunday River. When the dust finally settled, Sunday River and the Loaf were sold in early June to Boyne USA, Inc. for $77 million in cash. Boyne operates or has interests in seven other resorts in North America.

The final shoe dropped in late July with the sale of ASC's lone remaining resort, the Canyons, in Utah to the Toronto-based Talisker Corp. For the purchase price of $100 million, Talisker, which is developing a luxury residential community at nearby Deer Valley, will also assume about $600,000 in ASC debt. The sale is expected to close before the end of September. ASC has notified the SEC of its intention to dissolve the company and delist its stock.

Out of the ashes of ASC we now have the rebirth of six major resorts in New England under new management this winter. Interestingly, all of them were acquired by companies that have experience in ski resort operations elsewhere in the US and Canada. So what does this mean to you, the skier? We'll take that up on a resort-by-resort basis in a series of posts that will begin in early September. First up, will be, Putting the "snow" back in Mount Snow.

Tours de Sport Upgrades Servers!

Tours de Sport is moving servers to a brand new hosting facility that will provide us with improved performance! During this move, you may find our site inaccessible- this move is scheduled to occur the evening of 10/28. As you may have heard (see our previous posts below) Tours de Sport is growing to serve you, our clients, better than ever for the upcoming season and this is one of the necessary steps to make it happen. See you on the slopes!

Tours de Sport opens New Hampshire Sales Office!

October 12, 2005 - We are very pleased to announce that John Calderwood has joined the Tours de Sport team to open our new local sales office in New London, New Hampshire.

A lifetime New Hampshire resident, John brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience in the ski industry. Most recently, John operated his own group tour company, www.slopeandtrailtours.com, as well as spending several years with SKI 93, a tour operator specializing in ski travel to resorts in the I-93 corridor. John is also very familiar with ski area operations having served in a variety of management positions at Loon and Pat's Peak in New Hampshire and Ascutney in Vermont.

Having traveled and skied extensively throughout New England and Eastern Canada, John is ready to help skiers and snowboarders plan their perfect trip to any of the 25+ resorts in the Tours de Sport lineup.

Welcome to the Tours de Sport Team, John!