Thoughts on Snowsports

Iain Martin, The Ski Podcast

The sad demise of the catered chalet ski holiday
Ideas / Tour Operators

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...
Will ChatGPT make ‘ski experts’ redundant?  
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’),...
'Parrots in the Snow: the rise and fall of Bladon Lines' - article in 'Ski+Board' magazine
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...
Ski Touring in Morocco: A Photo Essay
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...
'I'm a modern-day Batman' says anti-ESF campaigner
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...
Why do chalet girls bake a cake every day?
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
Which is the Most Searched Ski Resort?
Resorts

Which is the Most Searched Ski Resort?

by iain on Jul 2, 2019 • No Comments
The second annual E-Tourisme Survey report on French ski resorts by French agency CyberCité has revealed some interesting data: Chamonix: Most Searched ski resort CyberCité looked at Google data from July 2018 to April 2019 and found that Chamonix was the most searched for ski resort in France during the period. The figures below show...
Lies, Damn Lies and Ski Statistics from the Department for International Trade
Ideas

Lies, Damn Lies and Ski Statistics from the Department for International Trade

by iain on Jun 13, 2019 • No Comments
It’s taken us a while to write this one up, but that might be because we’ve been in shock. Politicians lie, who knew? To be fair, this one is probably down to the civil servants. UK skis sold ‘across the globe’ Presumably it was a confused pencil pusher at the Department for International Trade who...
New owners again for Flexiski...
Tour Operators

New owners again for Flexiski…

by iain on May 28, 2019 • 1 Comment
Update: Ski Weekends bought the brand post Covid in November 2021 and are ‘repositioning it back to a 4 and 5 star focus with tailor made holidays’. It is now part of of Ski Elements Ltd. ——— Flexiski has changed hands again as it has been acquired by Hotelplan, owners of Inghams and Ski Total....
The Five Most Popular Episodes of The Ski Podcast
podcast

The Five Most Popular Episodes of The Ski Podcast

by iain on May 15, 2019 • No Comments
The Ski Podcast started in September 2017 and presenters Jim and Iain (from Skipedia) recently notched up their 35th episode (excluding the daily Olympic specials that they recorded during PyeongChang 2018). Every episode pulls in thousands of listeners through various podcasting apps and channels such as iTunes, Stitcher, aCast, Soundcloud and Spotify. Iain – co-presenter...
The Best Brexit Quotes from LISTEX Summer Session 2019
Ideas

The Best Brexit Quotes from LISTEX Summer Session 2019

by iain on May 2, 2019 • No Comments
Despite Brexit-fatigue, the Brexit panel in the afternoon of the 2019 LISTEX Summer Session was the best attended session of the day. The panel was chaired by Mark Frary and he was joined by Laurent Vanat, Sean Newsom (welove2ski.com), Ian Hope (Ski Famille), Farina Azam (Travlaw) and Martina Jamnig (Austrian Tourist Office). While Sean Newsom took a...
Ongosa's Ski Wordsearch is great marketing
Marketing

Ongosa’s Ski Wordsearch is great marketing

by iain on Apr 25, 2019 • No Comments
At Skipedia we specialise in digital marketing, but we always appreciate great marketing in any format when we see it. That’s why we liked this flyer from Ongosa – the website for booking ski instructors and guides – so much. A ‘sticky’ flyer Calling it a ‘flyer’ doesn’t really do it justice. Most flyers end...

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The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer. Please feel free to support or disagree with me in the comments section of each blog entry.