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538 skiing
skiing
Skiing may well be more than 5,000 years old. The
word `ski' itself is from a Norwegian word referring
to a snowshoe �skilober) that was used by the natives
of Northern Europe. Skis dating back to 2500 bc
have been found in the Altai Mountains of Siberia,
and they bear startling resemblance to those in use
today. One of the first written accounts of skiing
appears in the sagas, the classic literature of the
Viking period. Skiing was so much a part of Viking
life that a god and goddess of skiing, Uller and
Skada, were objects of worship. Skiing was used as
a mode of travel and as a means to prove men's
physical prowess, but it was not used in warfare
until 1721, when a ski company was organised in
the Norwegian army.
It was in the late 1830s that skiing as a sport first
entered the picture, again in Norway. Speed skiing
and ski jumping soon became popular. The spread
of Nordic skiing to the rest of the world can be
attributed to two major causes: the emigration of
Norwegians and the publication of Fridtjof Nansen's
book describing his 1888 expedition on skis
across the southern tip of Greenland. Nansen's
book popularised the idea of skiing; the Norwegian
emigrants contributed their knowledge of the
equipment and techniques. They first travelled to
Germany in 1853, to Australia in 1855, to North
America in 1856, to New Zealand in 1857 and to
Switzerland in 1868. Most were in search of a
better life through farming, forestry or mining, but
they brought with them a recreational sport which
has transformed the winter season throughout the
world �see also sport, recreational).
Winter sports are one of the fastest growing
tourism sectors in the world, and their growth
during the last hundred years has been remarkable.
�Skiing originated as Nordic �cross-country) skiing.
Then, following its introduction into central
Europe, it became an almost exclusively alpine
�downhill) sport. Today, skiing like many other
forms of recreation is feeling the influence of new
technology. Snowboarding �which uses one larger
more elliptical board which holds both feet) has
become the most recent fad of the young and agile.
A new invention called the `ski key' lets skiers keep
track of their vertical miles skied in order to win
prizes, and even alerts them to phone messages
from their office.
Further reading
Gamma, K. �1983) The Handbook of Skiing, New
York: Alfred Knopf.
Rosenberg, D. �1995) `High tech skiing' Newsweek
125�3).
Scharff, R. �1978) Encyclopedia of Skiing, New York:
Harper and Row.
Slovenia
CAROLYN M. DAUGHERTY, USA
Slovenia, a central European country on the
Adriatic Sea, has a population of 2 million and
an area of 20,253 square km. Its proclamation of
independence in 1991 caused a brief war against
the Yugoslav Army. Slovenian inbound tourism was
ruined, more by the negative image of war than by
real war horrors. Slovenian spa, mountain and sea
destinations and cities are now promoted as the
Green Peace of Europe.
TANJA MIHALIC Ï ,SLOVENIA
small business management
The main preconditions for small business management
result from the dependency on a specific
micro-social and micro-economic environment, the
dominant role of an entrepreneur, the influence of
the life cycle phase into which the firm has
developed, and the management methods which
are being used. These four interdependent variables
form a configuration which characterises the
concrete strategic position of an individual firm.
Small business management is designed to analyse
the concrete configuration of variables, to
elaborate goals for further development and to
adopt measures to move the firm towards a new
configuration.
The micro-social environment of small businesses
± which is almost universally typical to most
tourism operations, including hotels, restaurants
and travel agencies ± is characterised by close