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Show 0 f wir)yw'MriiHj V Page A8 Thursday, January 6, 1983 Park City News : The Selling of Park City 1 1 LOLO'S La Marine OF 9- Port-Grimaud France AND Park City, Utah NOW OPEN French Cuisine Reservations Please 649-1358 368 Main Street , , lit ?f ils I - -r.ik t-'M ii& -l i .('! if- H--. TT T f'"'"" " 'f T II 1U Magic-Stat Do something about it with Magic-Stat, the microcomputer thermostat that can cut your bills by 30 or more. Simple to use, simple to install, Magic-Stat can bring you simply incredible energy savings. With up to six temperature settings per day, 7 days a week, Magic-Stat brings more comfort and more savings than any other thermostat. Magic-Stat is backed by a unique performance guarantee - if you don't save at least the cost of the unit in a year, Magic-Stat will give you a full refund! Get the full Magic-Stat story today at - Park City Lighting Stop in and see us at our new location The Emporium 2, Hwy. 248 East P.O. Box 680095, Park City 84068 649-1900 by Rick Brough Five years ago, if you asked an out-of-stater to come to Park City, Utah, they might have asked, "What state is Utah in?" Now,' according to a local travel agent, "Park City has a-: chieved a true identity as a major ski destination, in the U.S. and internationally." In that time, old perceptions percep-tions about the town and Utah have changed, thanks in part, to Park City boosters who have clocked hundreds of hours on the road and on the telephone. Through such efforts, they anticipate soon finding the ingredients to make the town an attraction for all four seasons Utopia for a resort area. Park City promotion is big business. Getting the word out about the town takes a trained sales force, aggressive aggres-sive advertising and money. The winter promotion aione last year amounted to $1.5 million, according to Debby Symonds, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce-Convention and Visi tors Bureau. That included the expenditures of the Chamber, the local ski resorts and some 30 lodges and tourist agencies in the city. Fifteen years ago, Park City was a little-known historic mining town with a ski resort. What happened to put it on the map? The answer is as close as the nearest bulldozer. In the late '70s, Park City was hit by one of the biggest real-estate booms in the West. "The town was ripe for development," recalled City CouncUwoman Tina Lewis. The building boom had already hit areas like Vail and Aspen. The prices there were getting high and Park City was virgin territory. The town also began to attract famous names. As the story goes, actor Hal Linden came to ski and fell in love with the town. Now he owns a second home here. Jack Nicklaus fell for the area, too, and designed one of the town's two golf courses. Through the mysterious mys-terious process called word- of-mouth, Park City became known as a place where people with connections liked to play. Said CouncUwoman Lewis, "A writer from Town and Country magazine came to Utah to do an article on the movers and shakers of Salt Lake. But everybody kept telling her the people she was interested in had some connection with Park City." But Lewis, a vociferous booster for the town, said the real reason for Park City's appeal is not so much money or glamor. "Visitors get the genuine feeling that Park City isn't just a resort. It's a real place," she said. "The town sells itself to people once they get here." She likes to point to such examples of community spirit as last Labor Day's "Book Brigade." A new library was established that week in a renovated historic building, formerly a hospital for city miners. Citizens formed a human chain and passed many of the books from the old library on Main Street to the new site of a Why did we spend so much time designing the Saab seats? You drive sitting doiwn, don't you? The most intelligent car ever built. Garl rjct or Center State at 600 Sbuth SLC, Utah 84111 M HOLIDAY VILLAGE MALL, PARK CITY, UT 649-6541 finn WED. ALL LADIES ONE DOLIAR ei :;;V"-UU THUR. ALL MEN ONE DOLLAR uu: , ;;;iiit -----'- m NOW SHOWING fA!kMMipfr&4t.'-. r fn m BURT REYNOLDS "" ::: PGft0 iGOLDIE HAWN JKj ' SlUtlln" J ' J '. vmmmw' m now showing iess&as. vV'j:;:: r1Ifca Another World, V klT g I IHw 1 : 03116:30, 7:30. 9130 . i: Monkytonlt Man Ea- CiintEtutivood and Kyle Eastwood The boy is on bis way to becoming a man The man is on his way to becoming a legend. STARTS FRIDAY 9:45 ONLY v.-.v.l v. v.v.w.w. W.V.V.W V.'f L; 2. "'" " "kf ill rsti CyJ . a r jyksl ; foyy I NOW SHOWING Bma O j reason Kichard Hyor. Sat. A Sun. MatlnMt 1:15,3:15,5:15,7:15,9:15 Daily: 5:15,7:15,9:15 c$ arse ma mm w.-fi mile away. "It was covered on national television and it wasn't about skiing or real estate," Lewis exulted. Later, she said, she received re-ceived a call from a woman who lived out of state. "The lady said, 'I saw that brigade on television. You know, my family goes on vacation every year to Aspen or Vail. But Park City just looks like the most wonderful place to be!'" Debby Symonds also cites the "real-town" appeal by noting that, "other areas started as resorts." There are practical virtues, too. Park City can ably compete price-wise, she said, and it is one of the few resorts easilj accessible to a major city-Salt city-Salt Lake. In the beginning.... it was mainly a ski town. And the Utah snow is still an important impor-tant part of the city's sales pitch. With the Salt Lake airport nearby, skiers can leave California in the morning morn-ing and be on the slopes by the afternoon. "By comparison, compari-son, think of the time you'd City snow. (The Deer Valley Resort, which opened last winter, has now joined the effort.) Occasionally, someone some-one put out a tourist brochure bro-chure promoting summer recreation. The city turned a corner, Symonds said, when it began to develop the convention and hotel facilities needed to compete with other resorts. Symonds herself was part of the change. When the new Holiday Inn opened in 1977, she worked there as director of group sales. Park City promoters began be-gan a routine that continues to this day. They visit cities all over the U.S., pitching to such exotic groups as the American Society of Association As-sociation Executives, Meeting Meet-ing Planners International and National Tour Brokers. Diane Reed, a vice-president of marketing at Great Western Travel Corp., said her firm makes about 50 major city-county' stops every season. At first the customers had some strange ideas about the Potential visitors thought people were walking around with black hats and black beards.. .And some didn9t know it snowed here. 9 9 Debby Symonds spend on a bus from Denver to Aspen," said Kim Anderson, Ander-son, the Chamber-Bureau's director of group sales. Before the land boom, observers say, the Park City Ski area aggressively marketed the virtues of Park area or no ideas at all. Reed recalled, "People would say, 'Utah? Isn't that somewhere in the Middle West?' And I'd say, 'Only if you consider Colorado to be on the East Coast!" "You had to circle Utah in lllllllilPiiispiil 4 'fVr, fflffimm lllltilP ' ' , Sw? iiiiliiiiiii MP ..At Debby Symonds MrtHiday Stars January 10 January 6 ValarieDow Chris Andrus Dorothy Young Shell Thomas Billy Gray January 11 Kim Rampick Julie Horn DougDorsay January 7 NormSagona Jack Green Connie Hayes Cynthia Shankland January 8 Betty Moench January 12 Teri Williams January 9 Snookie Spaulding Bill Lewis Lynn Hughes Ashley Imboden Jane Shulman inn .m& QfeMi ma TT ZX zz -LL |