Ski Resorts Research Articles

Evaluation of outdoor thermal comfort conditions: evidence from the Serbian major ski resort over the last 30years.

The study aims to present reliable information about thermal conditions and their impacts on visitors to ski travel destinations. Mountain tourism areas are specific since high altitudes affect the ambient weather conditions which can affect different types of human activities. In this paper, the thermal comfort and its changes in Kopaonik Mountain, the most popular ski resort in Serbia over the last 30years, have been evaluated. Information about thermal comfort is presented by using the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), physiologically equivalent temperature (PET), and modified physiologically equivalent temperature (mPET) in 3-h resolution for the period 1991-2020. The results indicate prevailing cold stress all year round. Days with moderate, strong, and very strong heat stress were not recorded. Strong and extreme cold stress prevailed during winter, while slight and moderate cold stress prevailed during summer. Transitional seasons were very cold, but autumn was more comfortable than spring. The occurrence of days with neutral and slightly warm/cool conditions is concentrated in the summer months. However, summer is not used enough for tourism because the choice of tourists to stay at Kopaonik is not primarily based on favorable bioclimatic conditions, but on resources for winter tourism. With global warming, the annual number of thermally favorable days has been increasing, while the number of days with extreme and strong cold stress is decreasing. Continuing this trend can significantly influence tourism in the future, and therefore, new strategies in ski resorts will be required to adapt to the changing climate.

Exploring the effects of place attachment and positive emotions on place satisfaction and intentional behaviour in Iranian ski resort: a perspective from S-O-R model

ABSTRACT This study developed conceptual framework based on the SOR model consisting place attachment, positive emotion and place satisfaction to investigate the behavioural intentions of visitors in an Iranian ski resort. A total of 290 respondents participated in the study, who were ski resort tourists in Pooladkaf, a relatively new and upcoming ski resort in Iran. The data was analysed via Partial Least Squared structural equation modelling. Findings highlighted the importance of place attachment and positive emotions as predictors of place satisfaction and intention behaviour. Place satisfaction was also found to have a full mediating effect on the relationships between place attachment, positive emotions and behavioural intention. The study contributes to the literature by elucidating the mediating effects of satisfaction within the ski resort context, which has not been examined to a great extent in the current literature. Our study also highlighted the crucial role played by positive emotions in enhancing tourists’ sense of satisfaction which consequently influences future behaviours. Destination marketers and operators of ski resorts ought to focus on improving service quality, infrastructure and marketing communications strategies in order to engender a greater sense of satisfaction, attachment and positive emotions, which have been shown to have a strong bearing on tourist behaviour intentions and thus, lead to revisit behaviours and the spread of positive word-of-mouth.

Retinal blood vessel diameters in children and adults exposed to a simulated altitude of 3,000m.

Introduction: Technological advances have made high-altitude ski slopes easily accessible to skiers of all ages. However, research on the effects of hypoxia experienced during excursions to such altitudes on physiological systems, including the ocular system, in children is scarce. Retinal vessels are embryologically of the same origin as vessels in the brain, and have similar anatomical and physiological characteristics. Thus, any hypoxia-related changes in the morphology of the former may reflect the status of the latter. Objective: To compare the effect of one-day hypoxic exposure, equivalent to the elevation of high-altitude ski resorts in North America and Europe (∼3,000m), on retinal vessel diameter between adults and children. Methods: 11 adults (age: 40.1 ± 4.1years) and 8 children (age: 9.3 ± 1.3years) took part in the study. They spent 3days at the Olympic Sports Centre Planica (Slovenia; altitude: 940m). During days 1 and 2 they were exposed to normoxia (FiO2 = 0.209), and day 3 to normobaric hypoxia (FiO2 = 0.162 ± 0.03). Digital high-resolution retinal fundus photographs were obtained in normoxia (Day 2) and hypoxia (Day 3). Central retinal arteriolar equivalent (CRAE) and venular equivalents (CRVE) were determined using an Automated Retinal Image Analyser. Results: Central retinal arteriolar and venular equivalents increased with hypoxia in children (central retinal arteriolar equivalent: 105.32 ± 7.72µm, hypoxia: 110.13 ± 7.16µm, central retinal venular equivalent: normoxia: 123.39 ± 8.34µm, hypoxia: 130.11 ± 8.54µm) and adults (central retinal arteriolar equivalent: normoxia: 105.35 ± 10.67µm, hypoxia: 110.77 ± 8.36µm; central retinal venular equivalent: normoxia: 126.89 ± 7.24µm, hypoxia: 132.03 ± 9.72µm), with no main effect of group or group*condition interaction. A main effect of condition on central retinal arteriolar and venular equivalents was observed (central retinal arteriolar equivalent:normoxia: 105.34 ± 9.30µm, hypoxia: 110.50 ± 7.67µm, p < 0.001; central retinal venular equivalent: normoxia: 125.41 ± 7.70µm, hypoxia: 131.22 ± 9.05µm, p < 0.001). Conclusion: A 20-hour hypoxic exposure significantly increased central retinal arteriolar and venular equivalents in adults and children. These hypoxia-induced increases were not significantly different between the age groups, confirming that vasomotor sensitivity of the retinal vessels to acute hypoxia is comparable between adults and prepubertal children.

Opening of hotels and ski facilities: Impact on mobility, spending, and Covid-19 outcomes.

This paper investigates how reopening hotels and ski facilities in Poland impacted tourism spending, mobility, and COVID-19 outcomes. We used administrative data from a government program that subsidizes travel to show that the policy increased the consumption of tourism services in ski resorts. By leveraging geolocation data from Facebook, we showed that ski resorts experienced a significant influx of tourists, increasing the number of local users by up to 50%. Furthermore, we confirmed an increase in the probability of meetings between pairs of users from distanced locations and users from tourist and non-tourist areas. As the policy impacted travel and gatherings, we then analyzed its effect on the diffusion of COVID-19. We found that counties with ski facilities experienced more infections after the reopening. Moreover, counties strongly connected to the ski resorts during the reopening had more subsequent cases than weakly connected counties.

User Satisfaction Study for Sustainability of YouTube Content Quality: Focusing on Ski Technology

The purpose of this study is to find a way to maintain the sustainability of YouTube quality by identifying the relationship between user satisfaction, perceived achievement, and continuous use intention of YouTube content quality that provides ski technology information. Moreover, with the recent emergence of the recent emergence of COVID-19, face-to-face activities have been limited and skiing technique is commonly conveyed through YouTube. Therefore, it is urgent to develop and provide meaningful skiing technique content and information to YouTube users. To this end, this study focuses on YouTube content on ski techniques provided by the Education Committee of Korea Ski Instructors Association. The subjects of this study were 322 individuals who watched five YouTube videos produced by the Education Committee at High1, Yongpyeong, Phoenix Park, and Welli Hilli 4 ski resorts located in Gangwon-do from November 2021 to March 2022. Frequency analysis, Cronbach’s α, and correlation analysis were performed using SPSSWIN 24.0. In addition, AMOS 24.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model analysis for hypothesis validation. All statistical significance levels were set to p &lt; 0.05. The findings support the suitability of the research model.

ANALYSIS OF GEOMORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SKIING TRACKS FOR TOURISTIC POTENTIAL EVALUATION OF UKRAINIAN CARPATHIANS

The aim of the paper is to evaluate the quality of skiing tracks in the Ukrainian Carpathians. To do this we suppose to define a set of geomorphological characteristics of skiing tracks and determine theirs influence value on the tracks specialization and its suitability for skiing, also assess the touristic potential of the ski resorts of the Ukrainian Carpathians.&#x0D; Methods and approaches of research borrowed from a similar study on the avalanches danger estimation of other ski resorts. We obtained a number of geomorphological characteristics of the tracks and visually estimated the quality of its bed using created lengthwise and cross-section profiles of skiing slopes using a digital relief model. The visual analysis identified the areas for braking, as well as significant inequalities, protracted areas and track parts with inversed inclination which make worse the quality of the skiing and is danger the skiers.&#x0D; So the main research method is the cartographic modeling. We selected 7 ski resorts located in different parts of the Ukrainian Carpathians. The profiles were created using free Geographic Information System QGIS and open geospatial data of radar survey of the Earth's surface (SRTM and ASTER GDEM). We also compared received results with foreign similar studies. Scientific novelty. There are defined the set of geomorphological characteristics of a ski slope in the article. There are the length of the track (or its horizontal projection), the level difference and the derivative characteristic is the steepness of the slope (as well as its maximum and minimum values). This list was supplemented by cross-section profiles description (it may be convex, bent, flat or inclined). Altogether we compared 24 tracks of the Ukrainian Carpathians. There are created lengthwise and cross-section profiles for each of them and all results put into a table presented in the article.&#x0D; Practical results. We made a conclusion that the skiing slopes of the Ukrainian Carpathians have similar geomorphological characteristics in most cases. The average slope of the tracks is 9.5°. The maximum value is 13° and the minimum is about 3°. The length of the tracks varies from 1 to 4 km and the length of majority of them is not excites of 1.8 km. The height difference is from 50 m to 550 m, the average mean is 315 m, which is not quite long. The configurations of the most horizontal profiles are convex or even, which is not optimal for skiing. In addition, the presence of hills makes “blind zones” which limit the visibility of the track and can cause a collision of skiers. Most of skiing track beds has convex cross-section profiles or they are significantly declined, which is also not an advantage.&#x0D; Based on the received metric values we defined the weak and strong sides of the national resorts. The ski slopes haven’t many complexity categories and are interesting for amateur skiers. Therefore the national resorts give way to foreign ones even located in the Carpathians which have a greater variety and more levels of complexity of tracks. This circumstance can be an obstacle to maintenance of tracks and increase requirements for corresponding equipment. So national skiing resorts should focus on pricing policies and territorial accessibility.

Research on the Calculation and Analysis of Ski-Track Areas Based on Laser Point Clouds

To address the long-term statistical problem of ski-track area in the construction and operation of ski resorts, we propose a new ski-track point cloud boundary extraction method that improves the accuracy of boundary extraction and minimizes the offset of the area error. In this method, all point clouds are first projected onto the fitting plane using the random sample consensus (RANSAC) method. An improved point cloud boundary extraction algorithm is used to triangulate and extract the high-precision ski-track boundary. A discrete Green formula is then used to calculate and count the ski track’s exact area. It is demonstrated through five sets of test experiments that the error offset of the method proposed in this paper is smaller than that of other classical methods, which confirms its benefits and feasibility.

A study on factors attracting customers to tourist facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has restricted the movement of people globally and has had a negative economic impact on many industries, such as the restaurant and tourism industries. However, the expansion of the concept of “living with COVID-19” is increasing the number of visitors to restaurants and tourist facilities. The purpose of this study is to derive the tourist awareness factors that attract customers to tourist facilities. This study focused on ski resorts as one of the tourist facilities. The primary awareness factors were investigated using a survey. The factor analysis revealed that tourists outside the prefecture with high anxiety levels concerning COVID-19 showed negative awareness of infection control measures, such as “Social Distancing,” “Disinfection,” and “Ventilation” in ski resorts.

Functional, technological, constructive and compositional solutions of ski complexes

The article analyzes the increased interest in alpine skiing and in the design of sports ski complexes. Classifications of ski resorts, main types and their descriptions are pre-sented. Particular attention is paid to indoor ski resorts, their architectural and landscape solu-tions. The planning classification is studied in detail and presented. The article also discusses many modern engineering technologies, including: air conditioning systems, snow cooling, air dehumidification; use of safe and inexpensive lifts; technologies for making snow on a slope, cooling the snow cover and air, and dehumidifying the air. Studying the topic of ski resorts proves the importance and relevance of the design and construction of indoor multi-functional ski complexes. This presupposes a variety of space-planning solutions that ensure year-round use, and as a result, the development of territories

SkiVis: Visual Exploration and Route Planning in Ski Resorts.

Optimal ski route selection is a challenge based on a multitude of factors, such as the steepness, compass direction, or crowdedness. The personal preferences of every skier towards these factors require individual adaptations, which aggravate this task. Current approaches within this domain do not combine automated routing capabilities with user preferences, missing out on the possibility of integrating domain knowledge in the analysis process. We introduce SkiVis, a visual analytics application to interactively explore ski slopes and provide routing recommendations based on user preferences. In collaboration with ski guides and enthusiasts, we elicited requirements and guidelines for such an application and propose different workflows depending on the skiers' familiarity with the resort. In a case study on the resort of Ski Arlberg, we illustrate how to leverage volunteered geographic information to enable a numerical comparison between slopes. We evaluated our approach through a pair-analytics study and demonstrate how it supports skiers in discovering relevant and preference-based ski routes. Besides the tasks investigated in the study, we derive additional use cases from the interviews that showcase the further potential of SkiVis, and contribute directions for further research opportunities.

Growth Opportunities for an Alpine Ski Resort in Norway

This paper explores growth opportunities for an Alpine ski resort in Norway, examining potential investments in infrastructure, market expansion, and diversification of services. The financial implications of capital expenditure (CapEx) and operational expenditure (OpEx) are considered with digitalization alongside their projected impact on the resort's profitability. An analysis of the Norwegian ski industry and trends in global tourism is presented to provide a comprehensive understanding of growth potential. The findings of this study will provide guidance to resort stakeholders seeking to capitalize on emerging market opportunities and improve financial performance.

Создание виртуальной модели района Большой Сочи – Красная Поляна – плато Лаго-Наки

The design of ski resorts, considering the surrounding areas and their characteristics, is a complex and multifaceted process that requires taking into account not only the geographical, but also the socio-economic aspects of the region. Along with the assessment within the mountain slopes, the project should assess the features of the development of the territory, its engineering development and other technogenic elements of the anthropogenic impact on the area. Experience in the construction of such facilities indicates that high-precision spatial data on the area of work are in demand by all participants in the processes of economic evaluation of the project and design. This information is used to optimize the location of lifts, driveways, snow gun conduits, landscape design solutions, hotels, restaurants and other residential infrastructure. The most promising method of geoinformation support for such projects today is the selection of complex multi-scale GIS data, including laser scanning with simultaneous planned and inclined aerial photography. Subsequently, these materials, together with highly detailed satellite images of adjacent territories, are used to create virtual models with a set of functions adapted to the needs of users with an average and low level of training in working with spatial data. At this stage, classic full-featured GIS packages have a number of disadvantages. The most common problem for users who have not previously encountered such data is the difficulty in mastering. Full-featured GIS packages can be expensive to purchase, while free solutions don’t provide enough functionality. The use of significant spatial data in a situation where users are located in different locations requires high-speed Internet access, and still does not provide the desired performance and flexibility. The approach to data organization used in this work eliminates the above disadvantages. There is no need to use complex GIS packages. As a replacement, virtual environments are created that are closed from editing and access to the source data. The resulting virtual model of the territories of existing and planned elements of ski clusters is focused on increasing the spatial awareness of users. It was possible to realize the functionality and the possibility of using the model on conventional computers in the mode of combining the high spatial accuracy of the model with its significant territorial coverage (over 25 000 km2).

Approaches to the study of tourist service (on the case of the Ural mountains)

Mountain have long been areas of tourist interest. In connection with the rapid development of the service, the range of tourist activities in the mountains is increasing. The study area is mountainous part of the Ural economic region, the most economically developed part of the Ural Mountains. The paper attempts to structure the tourist service by types of tourism - medical and recreational, skiing, nature-based, industrial, event. As a result, it was revealed that a number of types of tourism form their own service system and are clearly localized in space (health, ski, nature-based tourism), other types of tourism (industrial, event) are not so strictly determined. Medical tourism is the most inert type of tourism. The geography has not undergone significant changes over a long period of time due to the complete dependence on the infrastructure base of the sanatorium-resort complex. Ski tourism is a dynamically developing type of tourism in the region under consideration. Despite the need for significant investment, the network of ski resorts is growing and the range of their tourist services is expanding. Nature-based tourism, natural recreation is the most common type of tourism due to the widespread creation of tourist service facilities with the widest range - recreation centers and tourist bases, guest houses, glamping, campsites, etc. These objects gravitate towards natural attractions, picturesque outskirts of populated areas, points and banks of reservoirs, sustainable tourist routes.

Efficient Satisfaction Building: A Comparative Study of Ski Resorts

Destination managers aim at assuring high visitor satisfaction. Efficiency in satisfaction building has been a neglected issue in tourism research. In this study the authors examine the levels of efficiency that ski resorts attain in pursuing this objective. Configurations of satisfaction dimensions lead to some level of overall satisfaction. If high ratings for all dimensions are not necessary for achieving top overall satisfaction, destination managers get room for efficiency improvement. In a mixed-methods approach the authors analyze data from a sample of 54 Austrian, French, German, Italian, and Swiss ski resorts based on a survey totaling 12,234 cases. The two methods, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA), complement each other. An individual satisfaction item contributes to overall satisfaction depending on the simultaneous value of other items. QCA shows the holistic effect of such item configurations. DEA extracts the differences with regard to efficient satisfaction building and paves the way for resort benchmarking by proposing best-fitting benchmarking partners. Results indicate that destinations need not deliver top service quality in all satisfaction dimensions to achieve above average overall satisfaction. Thirty-three out of 54 resorts turn out to be inefficient in their satisfaction-building efforts.

Current Situation and Future Development Trend of Global Skiing Tourism Market

The global ski tourism market has been in a relatively mature period. However, passenger flows are stagnating in many countries and the growth perspectives are not very appealing. This change of the tourism market troubled the entire ski industry with new challenges, leading to the ski tourism industry model established in the 20th century failing to meet the current development needs. According to multiple data sources, including relevant industry reports and the latest data from internetm, this article based on a variety of these reports and the latest data from website, analyzed the ski tourism market's both sides of supply and demand, systematically summarized the evolution of ski tourism industry since the 21st century, discussed the process of the ski tourism industry's development and the economy's growth, and revealed the relationship between the influencing factors of ski tourism market's potentials. Meanwhile, the main problems and challenges in the ski market were also summarized. The results showed that global ski tourism had entered a mature stage since the beginning of 2000. Moreover, there was a specific correlation between skiing participation rate and GDP, which varied with the regional economic level and the maturity degree of skiing industry. Despite some impacts from COVID-19, the ski industry in most regions exhibited signs of recovery in 2021. The Winter Olympic Games in China have brought new opportunities to the skiing industry and have been expected to encourage global participation in skiing. However, some existing ski resorts in different countries and regions may not significantly contribute to the future development of global ski tourism, and the potential growth of ski tourism market might be small and mainly concentrated in China. At present, the biggest threat to the ski market is baby boomers having long been the bulk of ski resort visitors. The ski market is faced with this aging problem and the widespread phenomenon of ski culture fault. How to meet the needs of this new generation of customers who lack ski backgrounds or cultures is a severe challenge for all emerging and existing ski resorts around the world. Besides, public transport accessibility, service quality and resorts operation capacity have also been the improvement direction of the ski market in dire need.

Developing and testing an “Integrated Energy Management System” in a ski resort: The “Living Lab Madonna di Campiglio”

Nowadays, ski resorts represent an energy-intensive industry in the mountain environment. On the one hand, their energy consumptions (and costs) have greatly increased in the last 40 years, linked to growing: (I) snow production and grooming demands, facing climate change and ski season extension, (II) number of ski lifts, with a share expansion of the energy-intensive ones (e.g. gondola), (III) need of operational buildings (e.g. warehouses, workshops). On the other hand, their energy transition calls for energy efficiency improvement and renewable sources integration, to be part of cleaner energy systems with low emissions and low environmental impacts (e.g. water use). This paper describes the developing and testing of an “Integrated Energy Management System - IEMS” in the “Living Lab Madonna di Campiglio”, as part of the Interreg Alpine Space - Smart Altitude project. After a detailed characterization of the case study, this paper describes the development of the new IEMS as an integration of existing and new monitoring systems and platforms. This IEMS aims to facilitate and stimulate ski resort technicians and managers in the continuous analysis of energy, environmental and economic performance, paving the way for greater awareness and targeted interventions.

The deployment of snowmaking in the French ski tourism industry: a path development approach

ABSTRACT Many mountainous regions in Europe, including their tourism sectors, show a high degree of economic specialization. The ski tourism industry forms part of the long-standing economic success of the French Alps. Over the past 20 years, snowmaking has become a key feature of ski tourism, but future climate change will decrease its effectiveness as an adaptation solution to natural snow cover reduction. However, the ski tourism industry does not seem to be intent on stopping its investment in snowmaking, which raises the question of its dependence on this technology. In this study, we employ the path development framework to examine how snowmaking development has oriented decision-making to ensure the future of the French ski tourism industry. We analysed 38 in-depth semi-directive interviews and key financial figures from the French alpine ski tourism industry. Our results show that technical progress and specific investments in snowmaking have deeply transformed the management of ski resorts. Our finding is that snowmaking spurred ski lift operators to pursue specialization in the ski tourism industry. However, because of its ambivalent effects on the ski tourism industry, we view snowmaking development both as path extension and as path contraction.

Vehicle-to-ski: A V2G optimization-based cost and environmental analysis for a ski resort

Ski resorts are becoming perfect demonstrations for the integration of renewable sources. Moreover, the ever-growing global fleet of electric cars (EV) and the increase of battery capacities allow the vehicles to be used for purposes other than driving. This paper aims to study the implementation of a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) application and the development of an MPC-based energy management system (EMS) within a ski resort in the Trentino-Alto Adige Italian region. Using real data for load and production power estimation, the study analyses the economic and environmental impact in three different scenarios by considering the resort’s future trends. The results show that photovoltaic power generation has a significant impact on both cost and environmental aspects, leading to a reduction in total expenditure and CO2 of about 7%. However, assuming an increasing number of charging stations, the exploitation of V2G technology for energy arbitrage does not lead to significant total cost and CO2 reductions (≈2%) for the future scenarios. Conversely, self-consumption improves (≈100%) using different charging strategies. Despite this, a sensitivity analysis on PV production and a joint increase in EVs and energy price gap leads to a significant reduction in total costs of up to 7.7% and 15.2%, respectively.

Snowmaking in a warmer climate: an in-depth analysis of future water demands for the ski resort Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis (Switzerland) in the twenty-first century

Rising air temperatures threaten the snow reliability of ski resorts. Most resorts rely on technical snowmaking to compensate lacking natural snow. But increased water consumption for snowmaking may cause conflicts with other sectors’ water uses such as hydropower production or the hotel industry. We assessed the future snow reliability (likelihood of a continuous 100-day skiing season and of operable Christmas holidays) of the Swiss resort Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis throughout the twenty-first century, where 65% of the area is currently equipped for snowmaking. Our projections are based on the most recent climate change scenarios for Switzerland (CH2018) and the model SkiSim 2.0 including a snowmaking module. Unabated greenhouse gas emissions (scenario RCP8.5) will cause a lack of natural snow at areas below 1800–2000 m asl by the mid-twenty-first century. Initially, this can be fully compensated by snowmaking, but by the end of the century, the results become more nuanced. While snowmaking can provide a continuous 100-day season throughout the twenty-first century, the economically important Christmas holidays are increasingly at risk under the high-emission scenario in the late twenty-first century. The overall high snow reliability of the resort comes at the cost of an increased water demand. The total water consumption of the resort will rise by 79% by the end of the century (2070–2099 compared to 1981–2010; scenario RCP8.5), implying that new water sources will have to be exploited. Future water management plans at the catchment level, embracing the stakeholders, could help to solve future claims for water in the region.

Актуальность оказания первой и медицинской помощи пострадавшим и больным на горнолыжных комплекса

Summary. The aim of the study is to analyze causes, level and structure of traumatism and exacerbation of diseases among tourists at ski resorts in Russia and abroad; to consider problems of providing first and medical aid to injured and sick people and of conducting their medical evacuation at ski resorts in Russia. Materials and research methods. Normative and empirical base of the scientific research consisted of analytical materials of Russian and foreign scientists, devoted to traumatism and non-traumatic accidents in tourists, as well as of materials on the organization of first and medical care to the injured and sick at ski resorts. In addition, normative legal acts on rendering first and medical aid to the injured and sick, contained in two departmental orders, were analyzed. Research methods: literary-analytical and statistical methods, method of direct observation. Their use allowed a comprehensive analysis of the subject of research, also it allowed to make theoretical generalizations and to formulate conclusions. Results of the study and their analysis. The results of the study have shown the need for further study of the specific conditions of first aid and medical assistance to injured and sick in the conditions of ski resorts, as well as the need to improve organizational measures to provide injured and sick with first aid and medical evacuation.