Blue Mountain Village

Blue Mountain is Ontario’s premier four-season destination. This year, the Village expected a busy March Break week as always, but within days, everything changed. When the province announced the closure of non-essential businesses, the ski operations, attractions, hotels, retail shops, and food and beverage facilities went quiet at Blue Mountain.

Andrew Siegwart, President of the Blue Mountain Village Association (BMVA), recounted the days after the pandemic declaration. “Early operations issues were to safely close down and secure all our assets in the village and work with Blue Mountain Resort as they closed down the hill. A lot of food was donated, and one shop owner made all inventory available to staff on a first-come first serve basis. The immediate concern was for staff. While most were laid off and able to access government assistance programs, we also became aware of our agricultural community needing workers, so we partnered with the Georgian Bay Fruit Growers Association and Grey County to refer laid-off tourism workers.”

Amidst the financial uncertainty of the complete resort shutdown, BMVA worked hard to bring together all stakeholders and the regional community. Together they planned survival and recovery strategies.

Finally the time came to reopen, but that too posed challenges. “Designing new procedures; making changes to almost every aspect of the village and all its businesses; consulting with the province, Grey Bruce Public Health Unit and the Town of the Blue Mountains; and in some cases having to create our own policies was a huge amount of work and was required in a very short timeframe.” One of the biggest challenges was transforming Blue

Mountain’s ‘open door’ approach to visitors. New maximum capacities were put in place for the village, mountain and other resort areas. The village created teams of ambassadors to inform guests and manage visitor behavior, and launched a reservation system to manage the sales of tickets and passes.

Collaboration amongst resort partners inspired new practices and opportunities. “We’ve been meeting almost daily within our team and weekly with our partners across the village and resort, sharing data and observations which form the basis for any changes in our management. This has really improved our ability to understand and react and is likely something we’ll continue with for some time.” The Village has gone to great lengths to communicate with visitors to plan ahead, buy tickets online and book restaurants in advance to enhance their visit. Andrew and the team at Blue are also looking at new experiences to provide even more alternatives and dispersion across the incredible geography of Blue Mountain’s portion of the Niagara Escarpment.

Learn more about Blue Mountain Village at bluemountainvillage.ca.