Skipedia

The sad demise of the catered chalet ski holiday

by iain on Sep 25, 2023 • 8 Comments

Looking through a recent survey from Le Ski, I was struck by one stat in particular. While it was encouraging to read that the number of UK skiers and snowboarders is predicted to grow by 14% in winter 2023/24, the fact that only 13% stay in catered chalets highlighted how...

Ideas

Will ChatGPT make ‘ski experts’ redundant?

by iain on May 11, 2023 • No Comments

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is changing fast. A few years ago, it was just the name of one of Steven Spielberg’s less good movies, but in 2023 AI has moved from the world of ‘futurologists’ into the mainstream. The chances are that even if you haven’t tried ChatGPT (or Google’s ‘Bard’),...

Iain / Ideas / Tour Operators

‘Parrots in the Snow: the rise and fall of Bladon Lines’ – article in ‘Ski+Board’ magazine

by iain on Mar 8, 2023 • 3 Comments

Iain’s article ‘Parrots in the Snow: the rise and fall of Bladon Lines‘ has now been published in ‘Ski+Board’ magazine. It’s also now available as a special episode of The Ski Podcast My first experience of working in the ski industry came 35 years ago when I went to Chatel...

Iain / Resorts

Ski Touring in Morocco: A Photo Essay

by iain on Feb 8, 2019 • No Comments

Iain from Skipedia recently went ski touring in Morocco. Flying into Marrakech, and then travelling to Imlil (1740m), Iain then spent three nights at the Refuge des Mouflons (3207m), ski touring to different 4000m peaks. Ski hire was from Braemar Mountain Sports, guiding and logistics were organised by Toubkal Guide. You...

Resorts / Tour Operators

‘I’m a modern-day Batman’ says anti-ESF campaigner

by iain on Nov 2, 2014 • No Comments

These are difficult days for the ESF in the UK. The current legal cases against Simon Butler and Le Ski have stirred up plenty of negative sentiment within the British market against the ESF. Both cases – which deal with different aspects of the law – are currently at different...

Tour Operators

Why do chalet girls bake a cake every day?

by iain on Aug 13, 2011 • 2 Comments

Okay, not strictly anything to do with marketing, but just for fun… So why do chalet girls bake a cake every day? As far as I know chalets have always left out a cake for their guests to tuck into for ‘afternoon tea’. After a long day on the slopes,...

Latest entries

Resorts / Social Media

The Top 10 French Ski Resorts on Facebook (Dec 11)

by iain on Dec 12, 2011 • 2 Comments

It’s been over six months since the last Skipedia count on how the French Ski Resorts were doing on Facebook, so now the season is underway, a recap is certainly overdue. Here’s the scores on the doors in December 2011: The Top 10 French Ski Resorts on Facebook 1. Megeve – 43529 fans (1) 2....

Advertising

It’s pantomime season for the iPad2 (Oh, no it’s not!)

by iain on Dec 12, 2011 • 3 Comments

This advert we noticed in the papers at the weekend quite simply annoyed the Skipedia team. 1. ‘The gift you can’t wait to give‘ – Purlease…don’t make us sick! John Lewis might want us to believe that the world of their Christmas ‘event’ adverts exists in real life, but we all know that it’s only...

Ideas

Skiing meets Parkour…with JP Auclair

by iain on Dec 10, 2011 • 3 Comments

It’s a slow starter, but hang in there for a great urban skiing sequence from JP Auclair in All.I.Can

Ideas / Mobile

Graphene means flexible phones & tablets may arrive by 2012

by iain on Dec 9, 2011 • No Comments

Following our recent post about the amazing new technology we predict will soon be available, it was fascinating to read this week that the first flexible ‘bendy screened’ gadgets will be on the market in early 2012. This video from Samsung shows how they believe their new flexible device could be used. Another future technology...

Resorts / Tour Operators

What is France doing wrong and Austria doing right?

by iain on Dec 9, 2011 • 3 Comments

The annual ski industry reports from Crystal Holidays and the Ski Club of Great Britain may be based more on educated guesswork than actual data, but that does not mean they are not useful. Any information that helps us to understand our industry better is valuable, and if the reports are flawed, they are probably...

Social Media

Twitter raises the bar for brands with redesign

by iain on Dec 8, 2011 • No Comments

Twitter launched a new redesign today that gives the social network a much improved look, as well as adding functionality. The new design reorganises the page, putting Tweets in a right hand column – it remains to be seen if personalised background images will have to be adjusted to fit the new design. The new...

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