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...
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’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 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...
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...
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,...
Although social media marketing is much more about quality than quantity, I thought it would be interesting to see how many fans different ski resorts have racked up. Later in this series, I’ll also be publishing figures for other countries, and also for British snowsports companies. The Top 10 French Ski Resorts on Facebook 1....
I’ve just spent the last couple of days at the European Travel Distribution Summit 2011. It’s been a fantastic opportunity to discover the latest views on social, search and mobile strategy from some of the top professionals in the industry. I was lucky enough to speak myself about YouTube best practice, but when not behind...
Post-seasons my first UK-based job was with Crystal Holidays as Product Manager on their schools programme. This was before Crystal had been purchased by TUI in 1998 and it was still independent and extremely dynamic. I worked very closely with some of the key figures that had driven the company’s success and was lucky enough...
When I graduated there was never any debate that I was going to do a season. In December 1988, I headed to Chatel to be a Ski Guide for Bladon Lines. It was a terrible snow season, but I had a fantastic time. After a few years living in Australia, I returned to the Alps...
I arrived at Birmingham University to discover that I wasn’t quite as good a skier as I had thought. I made the ‘B’ Team in my first year, racing in Alpe d’Huez and quickly became involved in the ski club. By the second year, I was on the committee and effectively running my first ski business. We were the...
Mum and Dad met in a ski resort (Obergurgl, 1962). And if you count back from the day that an overdue and heavy baby was delivered by C-section in 1966, it looks like I was conceived in a ski resort too. I guess I was destined to end up in the snowsports industry. My folks...
