The start of Euro Ski Magazine

Even today I remember oh so clearly when and where the idea for Euro Ski Magazine came to me. It was springtime, just after the ski season of 1978 and the snow was melting quickly. I was standing on the platform of the main train station in Kitzbuhel, Austria, waiting to go back via St. Johann to Kirchdorf. This is the Austrian village where I had spent the last six winters teaching skiing. What great winters they were; what memories and what a way to enter one’s forties.
Six years of teaching skiing and yours truly was waiting for a train. Anyone get the Irony in that? I had neither car for transport nor significant or countable money after years of ski teaching, drinking and partying the winters away.  I had no other way of getting back to Kirchdorf except by train, and that, for those short distances, was the method of transportation used mainly by students. At this point in life I was far too old to be a student and, due to my deplorable financial situation, there was no choice but either to hitch a ride or travel by train.
Resignation to my situation and to end a great experience of teaching skiing hit me there and then .I and the great-no make that fantastic- life associated with ski teaching, had no choice but to part company.
I would not start the season of 1979.
So there I was, standing on the platform waiting for the train to St. Johann when the idea hit me. If Tyrolian Tours could capitalize on the huge market of military personnel, their families and tens of thousands of supporters, why couldn’t I?  I knew from experience that these people wanted more than Kirchdorf and I knew that all they needed was more, impartial information.  As well I was aware that they needed it presented in their own, predominately English language. As my non-skiing background was almost always in forms of printing and publishing, I decided to stick with what I knew best, newspapers and magazines.
Looking again from the train platform toward Kitzbuhel a whole new vision of the famous village came into focus. What appeared before my almost beggar-like eyes was a rough magazine idea taking shape, forming, and coming to life in my mind’s eye What was conceived there and then on that platform was completely different from all that I previously viewed in this heralded ski-resort.
Businesses were (before the Internet) trying and succeeding in making a living from the ski industry. They were attracting German, English and some other tourists in the millions. However they lacked one important market, the American and Canadian military contingent in Europe. Entrepreneurs in Kitzbuhel ran hotels, apartments, sports shops, bed and breakfasts, ski schools, ski guides, travel agents, tour operators, bars, restaurants, discotheques and just about any institution or service you could possibly mention. And yes, they succeeded in attracting skiers, especially in high season but they were missing out on a huge market segment. And if that was the case in Kitzbuhel, it was probably true all over Europe.
This Cape Breton Boy was going to give these folks that made a living from winter sports enthusiasts something they never had before. There, on that train platform in Kitzbuhel the idea of providing them with a roadway, a vehicle, that would provide a link to a huge, but do date largely unavailable market was conceived.  The idea would offer these entrepreneurs the opportunity to sell themselves to a new and specifically targeted market. It would provide a vehicle aimed directly at the heart of the North American military market in Europe, and would do so in the market’s own main language; English. 
The magazine to be entitled Euro Ski, would be printed in English, in color and about various ski resorts in Europe. It was spring 1978.
This story is being written in spring 2009, almost 32 years later. Euro Ski would morph into the Internet around 1996. However a lot would happen between then and when the printed word was exchanged for digital. Much, much more would happen between the beginning of Euro Ski and the advent of  today’s Activelifestyle Travel Network.
However all has not changed since the conception of the magazine format. To this day Activelifestyle earns the bulk of its income through advertising; an amazing feat when one considers my age and the fact that there really are no salespeople.
How did we go from a publication to the Internet? How and when did we secure the best names in the Internet world? How was Euro Ski Magazine developed and changed from a leading direct marketing journal to a leading niche market Internet force? All will be revealed. Not necessarily mind in the right chronological order. After all, organization was never my strong point.