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For Immediate Release
Deborah Bendinelli Media Relations Director 866-864-6444 CITY CONCIERGE AND FOOTLOOSE SPORTS GET THE JUMP ON INTERNET SKI RENTAL MARKETING "Innovate or die … gotta keep moving forward," says Tony Colasardo of Mammoth Lakes, California, owner of the ski resort's renowned Footloose Sports, "Technology is constantly changing, and this changes how you market your business and how customers find your business." Colasardo grins as he muses about his ever-changing business relationship with City Concierge -- an Internet-based full concierge service that offers a central collection of tourism-based lodging and services, businesses, and information partnerships serving vacationers. To provide a little background, Footloose Sports and City Concierge are currently in their second season of partnership with their online ski rental reservation system for Mammoth vacationers, a system developed by Jefferson Lanz, City Concierge's managing director. Visitors to the City Concierge website (www.cityconcierge.com) can quickly link to Footloose Sports online ski rentals where they can reserve skis, boards, and boots before they ever arrive in town -- gear guarantees, according to Colasardo, that become priceless when so many unprepared visitors show up to find rental equipment sold out and their winter vacation plans ruined without the gear. Footloose and City Concierge have created an easy-to-find-and-use format. Colasardo, friendly and forthright, shares his business vision while speaking about the benefits, as well as the learning curve, with the evolving online reservation partnership. According to Colasardo, "The system [with City Concierge] works quite well and facilitates our customer's needs. And we're still fine tuning the kinks and improving the system as we go along." He sees fine-tuning as an important and innovative part of growing a business. With the ongoing good communications and business relationship he has with City Concierge, Colasardo believes that the system will work even better this year, helping more customers and bringing more people into the store. During the second half of last year's ski season, the online reservation system brought in thousands of dollars through rental fees. Colasardo's business saw even more retail dollars come in through their name exposure on the City Concierge Website, as well as through bringing the ski reservation customers into the store where they purchased additional merchandise while picking up their equipment. This last point is a secondary yet very important piece of the business marketing pie. Colasardo, with his understanding of today's changing technology within the tourism industry and the value of marketing, gets that point. He says he definitely sees the benefit of collaborating with the City Concierge website as an effective marketing tool to attract new customers. With tourism statistics showing a quickly growing trend in Internet travel planning, he feels their business is keeping pace with that trend and reaching their customer base. "Marketing is using all media. The Internet is one of those media -- another effective avenue to market your business to potential customers. It's all definitely beginning to work well [with City Concierge] -- it takes time to learn and move through it … that's what evolving and growing a business is all about, or get left behind." Is Colasardo a visionary? Possibly. Smart in business? Definitely. ##### ABOUT CITY CONCIERGE City Concierge delivers vacation information, central guest services, and reservation travel services for individuals, groups, and corporate travel. Developing powerful marketing solutions for the resort industry, City Concierge works with local businesses to help them reach larger audiences through strategic marketing programs and advertising. The City Concierge (www.cityconcierge.com) was founded in April 2002. |