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

Advertising

Do paid search results perform better than organic search results?

by iain on Mar 1, 2013 • 2 Comments

We recently saw this fascinating research from Bunnyfoot suggesting paid search performs better than organic search. Consumers don’t realise paid ads are adverts Their survey showed some stand-out facts: 40% of consumers don’t realise that Google Adwords are actually ads 81% of users clicked on paid results rather than organic results It’s certainly true that...

Events / Resorts

Mini backflip in Tignes beats gap jump and rail slide to go viral

by iain on Feb 28, 2013 • No Comments

Firstly, if you haven’t already seen this incredible footage of a full Mini backflip filmed in Tignes, then press play on the video below right now! You’ve now added to the 3.3 million views that this video has had in the first ten days since it was posted. (And who knows what the count will...

Advertising / Resorts

Oslo Vinterpark take a cheeky ’50 Shades of Grey’ approach to introduce new chairlift

by iain on Feb 22, 2013 • 1 Comment

When Oslo Vinterpark replaced their old t-bars with a new six-seater chairlift, it seems they took their inspiration from ’50 Shades of Grey’. We’re not entirely sure if a t-bar has ever caused bruises as bad as these, but why let the facts get in the way of a great marketing campaign (created by Anti...

Marketing / Resorts

How to turn a pile of snow into guerrilla marketing

by iain on Feb 22, 2013 • 2 Comments

We love this guerilla marketing idea from Bláfjöll ski resort in Iceland (who knew?). It’s a simple idea, but brilliantly effective. Simply dump a load of snow next to a busy road and stick a sign in it pointing to your resort. Hey, it’s only 30km, and you’re in your car already, why not head...

Mobile

Survey shows travel searches increasingly start on mobile and tablets

by iain on Feb 18, 2013 • No Comments

Google recently released some stunning data about mobile phone usage. Everyone is aware that the massive increase in smartphone ownership has led to a sea-change in the way people are accessing the Internet. But if mobile optimisation wasn’t at the top of your list of development changes already then this research should put it up...

Marketing

Infographics win links (especially when you ask nicely!)

by iain on Feb 14, 2013 • No Comments

This morning we received a contact form via our website from Confused.com. It was a pitch asking us to include the infographic (shown below) on one of the sites we blog for. Usually we just ignore mails like this, but we have featured it because it was 1) personalised and polite 2) argued a...

Newer Older