Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
brand culture drawing heavily on traditional concepts of work and leisure to frame the seasonal
experience. Comparison with the 'other' type of life available is always negative compared to the
style of life experienced at Cardrona and popular culture understanding of living the dream
provides status for traditional low status work experiences such as low pay and physically hard
and uncomfortable work. The following quote illustrates how envy is interpreted by seasonal
workers as a customer response to the seasonal worker's style of life.
I guess that people are a bit envious that you are working in the (ski) fi eld that they are
spending so much money just to come here and ride at Cardrona, they are
spending
loads of
money whereas we're
earning
shit money but we're constantly in the (ski) fi eld and we're
part of the lifestyle.
(Mark, cleaner, new to Cardrona)
This comment recognizes the divide between customers and seasonal workers as consumers,
customers spend money whereas seasonal workers don't spend much because they do not
earn much and it is possible for them to maintain their style of life without signifi cant
funds. Mark believes that customers envy him for his style of life, not because of the poorly
paid work he does but because of his location. He is constantly where he believes customers
want to be. Hence the popular cultural understanding of living the dream requires a
separation between customers and seasonal worker, if everyone could 'live the dream' it would
not hold the same cache.
Work practices relating to destination brands
The previous section mapped three dominant themes that emerged from the data, in order to
link these fi ndings to the themes of destination brand experience and how seasonal workers, are
actors engaged in the interpretation and production of brand culture, the following discussion
focuses fi rstly on how these themes relate to their work practices. These quotes pertain to work
practice but the underpinning appreciation of an enjoyable style of life where being a seasonal
worker at Cardrona means being a member of a community where the work/leisure divide is
easily traversed:
If someone comes in and takes a set of skis from us and they're not great, I just want to
make sure they have the best ride. And if it's quiet you can maybe say 'oh I'm just gonna
run these over the waxer for you' and then they leave being happy, yeah, you're just
making things better. I'm passionate about my job. I just love, the way that the company
actually treats me, makes me want to treat the company, create the right image for the
company.
(Andrew, ski hire, fi rst season at Cardrona)
It's like a big family kind of thing. I know everyone works hard and the people that don't
work hard you can kind of pick up on them and try to pull them in. Well, I try to get their
attention and get them into it. You get the vibe that you just want to get down to it. Even
if you've come into work and you've got a massive hangover, you just get down to it because
it's a fun job and you're quite lucky to have a job where you walk out the door and you've
just got all this.
(Paul, ski school)
