Ski – resort and regional development: profile of visitors ... - E-Journal

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Ski - resort and regional development: profile of visitors and appraisal of demand in parnassos ski - resort
In Northern America, it had been observed an increase regarding cross-country skiing,
backpacking and snowboard, from the early 80’s to the middle 90’s (Cordell, 1999). In
Australia and Europe, a slowing down in the growth of downhill skiing market has been
observed (Buckley et al., 2000; Hudson, 2000). Statistics from the national organization of
USA ski-resorts demonstrate a considerable decline in downhill skiing during the 90’s, while
snow boarding activities almost tripled during that same period.
Profound changes were also detected in the mountain tourism patterns of Sweden, a country
with a long tradition in mountain sports. In the early 80’s, approximately 22% of the Swedish
population would make at least one trip per year to the mountains for downhill skiing (including
snowboarding). In the late 90’s, the percentage had increased significantly to 36%, an increase
corresponding to 970,000 individuals. Snowmobiling, skiing as well as downhill skiing
demonstrated a large increase (from 9% in the 80’s to 16% in the 90’s). Increased number
of visits to the northern mountains of the country near urban centers might be associated with
short vacation breaks. The observed increase of 11% in the average available income between
1981 and 1997 coincides with the increase in the cost of skiing and snowmobiling. Downhill
skiing has demonstrated an increase due to its attractiveness to various age groups that can
participate in the activity at various stages of their lives (Fredman and Heberlein, 2003).
Local people’s attitude towards tourism and views on tourism effects often vary considerably,
since tourism development can be profitable to some and damaging to some others. The net
effect of tourism activities in a region has been studied thoroughly in the international literature.
A research conducted in Aren Sweden, suggested that certain local residents acquired significant
profits from the expansion of a ski-resort while some others get damaged. Tourists themselves
also acquired certain profits from the expansion of a ski resort; however, their benefits were
not large enough in order to counterbalance the net losses experienced by the local residents.
Therefore, the expansion of the ski-resort resulted in an overall negative change in prosperity
level of the society (Lindberg et al., 2001).
Since the early 90’s, the Canadian ski industry has been facing many problems due to low
profit generation. While it is rather difficult to predict its future, it is quite obvious that the
world ski industry will continue flourishing. Therefore, the Canadian ski industry will have
to develop new products and create new alternatives in order to attract more people to the
sport. The Canadian Ski Council, in particular, is currently making a considerable effort to
attract people who have never tried skiing. The most important factors keeping potential skiers
away from the mountains are related to the public image of skiing created by the media,
training requirements in order to become able to curry out the activity, time requirements and
costs. Many non-skiers have never trying skiing, either because they have not been told about
the sport’s benefits or due to their biased perceptions about the nature of the sport (Williams
and Fidgeon, 2000).
According to annual reports from ski-resort organizations in Europe and N. America, growth
Tourism Today - Fall 2007 - Full Paper