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

Ideas / Marketing / Tour Operators

P&V team up with La Folie Douce

by iain on Sep 23, 2015 • No Comments

The biggest challenge facing tour operators is being able to differentiate their product. After all, if you’re trying to choose who to go with to a particular destination, then the ski area is the same, the lift pass is the same, and the choice of ski schools and ski hire is the same. Some companies...

Marketing

InTheSnow magazine to ambush London Ski Show

by iain on Sep 21, 2015 • No Comments

Credit to InTheSnow, who announced some clever distribution today to put their magazines in the hands of people heading to the London Ski and Snowboard Show. The Telegraph London Ski & Snowboard Show The London Ski and Snowboard Show is owned and organised by the Telegraph group. The Telegraph is the headline sponsor....

Ideas

Should you post your video on Facebook or YouTube?

by iain on Sep 11, 2015 • 1 Comment

This week Jamie Nicholls released his much-awaited ‘#hemelrun2’ – a super-inventive freestyle run filmed at The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead. If you haven’t seen it yet, then it’s available on both Facebook and YouTube. The YouTube version is embedded below: YouTube or Facebook? What interests us is that Nicholls chose to upload...

Ideas / Marketing / Tour Operators

Should I buy a .ski domain extension?

by iain on Sep 9, 2015 • No Comments

Since their official launch earlier this week, it has now been possible to buy a .ski domain extension. So for example it’s now possible to buy domains such as courchevel.ski or backcountry.ski And since that launch the most common question we’ve had at Skipedia is ‘Should I buy a .ski domain?’ Not necessary, but probably...

Events

Freeze Big Air Brings Snowboarding to London Olympic Stadium

by iain on Jul 26, 2015 • No Comments

Big news for British snowboard and freestyle fans as the long-rumoured Big Air competition in London has now been confirmed. And the super-exciting news is that it will take place on Saturday 14 November 2015 at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Stadium – helping to keep the Olympic theme after the success at Sochi 2014. World...

Ideas / Marketing

Yorkshire Tea virtual reality cricket misses a chance

by iain on Jul 24, 2015 • No Comments

As well as snowsports, the Skipedia team is also fond of the occasional game of cricket. So when we saw that England sponsor Yorkshire Tea were offering a chance to try some virtual reality cricket, we stepped up to the crease immediately. Oculus Rift As with our recent blog about virtual reality experiences, the go-to...

Newer Older