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,...
Regular visitors to the London Ski & Snowboard Show last week will have noticed one rather visible new retailer this year. Nestling between the minimalist Snow + Rock stand and the huge footprint of Ellis Brigham was the newcomer Sports Direct. Sport Direct targeting 20% market share A year ago, the company – known for...
We’ve seen some nice Facebook promotions by resorts before. This summer Verbier teased their fans to decide if they should open for a day. Free skiing for Facebook fans Currently Serre Chevalier are planning to start off the 2013/14 winter ski season with an exclusive ski day for their Facebook fans. One day before the...
At the London Ski Show this week, it was impossible not to notice the large number of volunteers sourced by Natives for the show. The ethics of internships are complicated. There’s a minimum wage in this country and it’s there for a reason. However, if people are prepared to work for free, and they know...
The final session of the LISTEX 2013 forum was ‘Growing the Market’. Iain Martin from Skipedia moderated a distinguished panel which included James Cove, Owner – PlanetSKI Tim Fawke, CEO – Snowsports England Gordon Ritter, Purchasing Director – Crystal Ski & Thompson Ski Dom Killinger, Publisher – InTheSnow Vicky Norman, PR Manager – Ski...
Some images capture your attention more than others, and this unusual photo we saw on Facebook this morning was one of those. Val Thorens use #WantToSki hashtag The picture piqued our interest, so we took a look at Twitter to see what was happening around that #WantToSki hashtag. It turns out Val Thorens have built a...
High altitude zip wires are just like London buses: none for ages and then you see two at once. The longest zip wire in Europe The week after Val Thorens announce they will be opening the highest zip wire in Europe, we noticed that Stoderzinken, near Dachstein, already have the longest zip wire in Europe....
