For the snowboarder or skier who is seeking the cookie cutter winter wonderland megaresorts there is a alternative: Echo Mountain, Colorado. When caught in a bruising sustaining battle that gives clear advantage to powerful incumbents, other players looked for new business models that might enable them to beat the market in new ways – by satisfying underappreciated dimensions of performance. In the world of winter sports, smaller resorts do well to consider the disruptive new business model developed by Echo Mountain Park in Colorado.
The lift tickets at Echo are priced for teenagers on a lawn-mowing budget, and the cuisine is spartan even by cafeteria standards: energy bars and nuke-able burritos from vending machines (source: NY Times). The concept of Echo was not aimed at competing with the large resorts operated by companies as Intrawest and Vail. It focusses on delivering a great experience by offering excellent snow park facilities without having to pay for many thing the visitor does not use, all within driving range of a metropolitan area. It is all about the basics: newest, closest, cheapest.
