First Euro-Asian Ski Resorts Conference

All Regions
7 Oct 13

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) at the kind invitation of the Municipality of Almaty and with the support of the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of Kazakhstan celebrated the 1st Euro - Asian Ski Resorts Conference: “Developing New Destinations for Snow Tourism” in Almaty, on 8 – 9 October, 2013.

Background

Ski sports constitute quite an important segment in today’s highly lucrative domestic and international tourism market. Relevant data indicates that around 2000 ski resorts which are operated in around 80 countries worldwide accommodate approximately 6 million beds for those who practice winter sports.
In general, cross-border snow tourism takes place in bigger ski resorts in destinations with a long tradition in winter sports; however, smaller ski resorts mostly depend on the domestic demand. Mature ski destinations are quite concentrated in Western Europe, United States and Japan.
Ski resorts concentrate on recreational use, permitting tremendous numbers of people to enjoy and learn about delicate mountain environments in a safe manner. When undertaken in an environmentally sensitive manner, ski resorts can minimize their impacts on the land, while maintaining or improving business.
Due to some environmental, structural and market oriented challenges, the consumer for winter resorts is looking for new destinations and innovative products.
A competitive ski resort development and its efficient management both have a high cost in terms of investment and maintenance. There is strong need for a long term vision and clear understanding of the market dynamics as well as an established management culture and entrepreneurial spirit.

Objectives

The objective of the Conference was to acquire an overview to further develop and expand the international ski tourism market in order to ensure its steady and sustainable growth. For this purpose, it aimed at exchanging state of the art experiences between the traditional, established hot spots of ski tourism and the new and developing ski resorts in winter destinations in Europe and Asia.

The focus of the Conference was put on the following issues:

Understanding the strategic importance of ski resorts for the national economy;
Knowing the latest evolution of the world’s ski market;
Benchmarking successful development and business models;
Discussing the optimal size of ski resorts;
Learning from successes and failures of ski resort development.

Participants

More than 200 participants representing more than 20 countries participated in the conference. Among them representatives from National Tourism Administrations, local or regional DMOs or municipalities in mountain areas in Europe and Asia, representatives from ski resort managements, private sector stakeholders such as ski resort designer, developers and investors, representatives from the industry providing infrastructure to ski resorts, academics and other segments related to mountain and ski tourism

Programme, Speakers and Presentations

For more details on the Conference Programme as well as the Social Programme please click here. To find out about the professional background of the session´s speakers and to download their presentations click here.

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