In 2010 there were more than 5 million skiers in China, up from 10,000 in 1996 and 200,000 in 2000. The China Ski Association predicts this figure will rise to 20 million skiers by 2015, with an industry worth US$629 million ($740 million). Ask how many ski resorts there are and you’ll encounter varied answers. A 2012 China ski study report commissioned by the Canadian Tourism Commission puts the resort figure at 70 with more than 200 ski facilities. “The China market is not an advanced-skier market, they are mainly beginners and so are the ski fields,” Grant says. “While some resorts are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on creating five-star hotels and facilities, most of the mountain resorts close to Beijing are mainly man-made snow, and shorter, beginner-style runs. But while the quality of the lift systems and spa resorts are top notch, the quality of service, including ski instruction and ski patrol, is sub-par. Some resorts say that 80 per cent to 90 per cent of first-timers won’t revisit.”
May 2013
2 posts
It’s been 10 years since SAM first took up the best/worst quest. In the old days, this was mostly a matter of reviewing ads in magazines. But media have changed tremendously, and as a smart guy once said, “the medium is the message.” Resorts now have a lot of stories to tell, and many ways to tell them. As do their guests.
April 2013
7 posts
Everyone can get caught short – but what do you do at 3,500 metres when there isn’t a pub to nip into? One solution is to use a mountain loo, which, as Swiss journalist Marco Volken discovered, can come in all shapes and sizes. For his series of photographs “Silent Places”, on display at the Swiss Alpine Museum in Bern, Volken photographed various outhouses on Swiss mountains.
Good snow means several resorts in the USA and Canada will be open until early summer. It is not the first time resorts have been open into the summer. This year Crystal Mountain Resort in Washington state has already announced it intends to stay open at weekends from late April until at least June 16. Blackcomb Resort will be open until May 20ththen the Blackcomb glacier will be open daily from noon to 3pm from June 22 to July 28 for summer skiing. Mammoth Mountain in California is yet to announce its summer opening plans but has more than a 4m base at present and has stayed open in to August in the past. Elsewhere, in Oregon, Mount Bachelor has announced it will be open to at least May 26th
Google announced that it has added trail maps for another 100 resorts in the U.S. and Canada to Google Maps. Update includes a number of major resorts, including Oregon’s Mt. Hood Meadows and Timberline Lodge resorts, as well as smaller ski areas like New York’s Hunter Maintain Ski Resort. Ski runs on Google Maps are marked by the usual blue, green and black lines to mark the difficulty of the terrain. Ski lifts are shown as red dotted lines. Before last month’s update, Google launched its effort to add ski runs to Google Maps by adding about 90 maps in November 2012. Overall, Google Maps users can now find about 225 different ski resorts on Google Maps. Except for a few European mountains that were part of the first batch, Google hasn’t released any new maps for European ski resorts since.
See on techcrunch.com
An MP is calling on the Foreign Office to take action on what he called a “massive overreaction” by French authorities after they arrested a British ski instructor for teaching without a licence in a move described as protectionist. Mr Casey, 40, originally from Folkestone in Kent, was accused of giving lessons without a licence in the Alpine resort of Megève, where he has been an instructor for more than a decade. He is now officially banned from teaching skiers because he lacks a qualification expected by the French, and faces up to 12 months in prison for the offence of instructing without qualifications.
Aurélien de PIERREFEU’s insight:
A new episode of the “war of the pistes”
It is being built as part of the Mall of Arabia in Jeddah, one of the largest shopping malls in the Middle East. The Snow Village will be the first of a new generation of winter themed indoor real snow and ice amusement parks. Covering approximately 5,000 square metres there will not be one snow slope but instead some 15 snow and ice fun rides and attractions for children and families.
See on planetski.eu
In its decade of existence, the GoPro doubled in sales every year to become the number one best-selling camera in the world. (Woodman is now a billionaire, with GoPro valued at $2.25 billion). The cherry on top is the GoPro HD Hero3: Black Edition, a full-HD 1080p video and still camera that can be controlled via a Wi-Fi remote. The company is able to cram all of these features into a body that is 25% lighter and 30% smaller than the Hero2 (clocking in at 2.6 ounces), and still keep the price point under $400. Mashable talked to Shaikh about how the GoPro is revolutionizing the video industry and how the camera continually outdoes itself.
March 2013
3 posts
That is what has been spent in Austria in the past 5 years and it raises questions about whether it is cost effective. All resorts seem to need snow cannons but they come at a high price and ultimately the consumer pays. A debate has been raging in Austrian newspapers over spending by the country’s ski areas on snowmaking systems. The issue has been raised in its Parliament. Franz Hörl, Chairman of the Austrian trade association of lift operators (Obmann des Fachverbandes Seilbahnwirtschaft) is quoted as saying Austrian ski resort operators would prefer to have less snowmaking but says that customers “…demand perfect ski pistes from November to April or they will not come.” He says without snowmaking this is not possible.
1. Poma (real name: Pomagalski) has 60% of the French ski lift market
2. The average French ski lift is 19 years old, whereas in Austria it is 11 years old
3. French ski resorts have 3800 total lifts, compared to 4200 ten years ago
4. Poma first installed lifts in the USA in the 50s, and cable cars are still commonly called ‘Pomalifts’
5. The annual French market is estimated at €125m
6. Doppelmayr lifts are used in 24 French ski resorts
7. Each year French resorts replace 33-34 lifts
8. 40-60% of Poma’s and 66% of Doppelmayr’s revenues come from international markets
9. Poma employs 660 in France and 880 globally
10. In 2011 Kassbohrer sold 130 ‘piste bashers’ in France, but an average of 170 p/a in 2008-2010
Aurélien de PIERREFEU’s insight:
Big thanks to Iain @skipedia for these nice key figures
All the major tour operators have met to decide a course of action following the decision of a French court to ban ski hosting. In an unprecedented show of support all are rallying round the company taken to court, Le Ski. The meeting took place in London on Thursday. The tour operators present were Alpine Elements, Crystal Ski, Inghams, Le Ski, Mark Warner, Neilson, Ski Esprit, Ski Olympic, Ski Total, Skiworld, Thomson, VIP-SKI. The operators all supported Le Ski. The company has launched an appeal after the court ruling in Albertville last week. “All ski operators present were fully supportive of Le Ski in its appeal as ski customers are currently unable to benefit from this popular service,” said a joint statement from the tour operators.
February 2013
8 posts
The illogical decision to ban British ski hosts from French resorts is likely to see holidaymakers head elsewhere, says Julian Sambles. For years the French authorities have been putting pressure on British tour operators to end their practice of providing holidaymakers with ski hosts on the mountain. Have they spent any time looking into what ‘ski hosting’ is, to see what benefits it brings them both financially, and from a marketing perspective, and at no cost to themselves? Alternatively, we could all go skiing in Austria or Italy, where I expect the tourists offices are already working out how to capitalise on the short-sightedness of the French.
A little over a year ago, I shared a simple video series Liberty University Snowflex had created that simply and easily accomplished three goals:
- First, it was an engaging, but triumphant, story about learning to ski
- Second, it was a testimonial of the power of ski school
- Third, it created a couple dozen new skiers / snowboarders for life
The project was called “Trails to Rails”, a system that taught total newbies how to snowboard with the end goal being a rail jam and the end of the program. After a great, successful first round, they recent came back for another go with an extra focus on telling the story.
Aurélien de PIERREFEU’s insight:
Another interesting article from the excelent Gregg Blanchard (@slopefillers) on how LibertyMountain Snowflex centre brings newcomers to ski
See on slopefillers.com
Why buy the GoPro when you can have the GoAmateur!!! twitter.com/linkdelight/st…
— Link Delight (@linkdelight)
Aurélien de PIERREFEU’s insight:
Excellent !
See on twitter.com
On Monday a court in Albertville has ruled that British Tour companies are not allowed use ski hosts to show clients round the slopes. It believes skier safety is compromsied. It is a test case and all ski hosting in France is now banned. The British are appealing. ”As we expected the court in Albertville has taken the side of the locals and the protectionist agenda of the ESF. We will be appealing and the case now goes to a court in Chambery. The fight goes on and we will take this all the way,” said the co-founder of Le Ski, Nick Morgan, to PlanetSKI shortly after the judgement was given. Through a PR firm in London the ESF has given its reaction to the decison of the court. “This is not an ESF led court action, but the organisation has rightly shown its support for French law to be upheld and that for those organisations using hosting or other personnel to ‘guide’ such people must possess a valid qualifications to do so.
Whatever the legal complexities and ongoing court cases one thing appears certain. It is a PR disaster for the ESF that is already held in low esteem by many British skiers and snowboarders. It seems the reputation of the ESF with the British holiday skier is about to go from bad to worse.
With Valentines Day on Thursday there are many romantic experiences being offered in the Alps. Some are better than others.
There are of course any number of events where a Valentine’s theme has been introduced by the marketing and PR people.
See on planetski.eu
Why is working directly with resorts important to GoPro?
We want to increase awareness of the brand with tourists to increase sales. We are looking for partners who can offer us exclusivity, and the opportunity to brand locations such as air bags, obstacles in the snow park and to partner with their digital assets. We can provide resorts with great content to push through their channels.
The Imperial Express in Breckenridge opens this weekend for the season after heavy snowfall in the resort. It goes to 3,914m and offers access to some of the best slopes of the resort.
