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,...
This superb graphic was created by Fiona Pia, an architect whose area of specialisation is alpine planning. Last year she published a PHD titled ‘Urbanizing the Swiss Alps: densification strategies for mountain towns’, which focused on Verbier. According to Pia, Verbier is a resort ‘that is reaching saturation point, with land availability constraints, road congestion and...
SkiDebrief – the end of season wrap-up by French ski resorts – took place in Val d’Isere at the end of April 2017. As well as being an opportunity to network and share best practice, the event also saw awards handed out. ‘Les Trophées de La Montagne Française’ were designed to reward the best new...
We recently came across this excellent video by French organisation Cluster Montagne – part of their Mission Benchmark Digital series. The video includes interviews with ski resort professionals such as Earl Saline from the National Ski Areas Association, Leigh Hierholzer, Marketing and Communications Director at Arapahoe Basin and Jean-Pierre Chevalier, Marketing Director at Eldora Mountain...
As well as writing about snowsports, Iain from Skipedia is a keen runner and takes part in a variety of races around the world. Last month he had articles published in the magazine and online about the Thames Meander Marathon in London and the Three Waters Half Marathon in Bunbury, Western Australia. Click on the...
Crowdfunding in snowsports is in vogue. Last year saw a hugely successful campaign organised by Joost Van Zundert in his attempt to protect La Grave from avaricious developers. That raised over €61,000 in a matter of weeks – principally because so many skiers and snowboarders out there feel strongly about La Grave – there’s an...
In the latest update from the ‘Let’s Keep It Wild’ La Grave crowdfunding campaign, it was revealed this week that Compagnie des Alpes (CDA) has withdrawn their bid to run the gondola in La Grave. CDA or SATA were only candidates The commune had selected two candidates (CDA and SATA) a few months ago – controversially...
