What is the real cost to the resort of a poor start to the season

A snowHead

With the snow fairies holding onto their flakes probably into December and the press running horror stories of pure negativity you cant but wonder what the real cost will be to the ski resorts and partners.

We all know that a poor start will have put people off booking, Crystal have been running their wipe out deals but i'm sure it will of only tempted the really brave for early season, Thomas cook wont appreciate the conditions either when they are having a few issues with cash flow. But what about the resorts!

They are all starting to pump out artificial snow to get the season underway and hopefully will give a good base for the first snow to make it a great season.

But it must be really expensive to run so many cannons for a prolonged period, I'm sure they wont mind in the short term and if they get really big dumps throughout the season they may not have to use them much more but if not ---
how long will they be able to run them due to cost and water supplies Puzzled

lets just pray fro snow wink

A snowHead

Like last year the high glacier resorts will see proportionally more customers at the expense of the lower ones

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Ischgl in Austria spent around 1 million in a week or so for artificial snow. And they will open on 26th!

http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=78100&start=120

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I'm not sure that the resorts are spending more this year on snow blowers than in previous years.

When we lived in Les Contamines I was quite good friends with the Technical Director and his aim was to blow as much as possible in November regardless of what the snow did as the snow would only add to the the work they'd already done.

This would mean that if there wasn't much snow during the season it wouldn't create too much of a problem plus it would mean that they could better control the base layers which would result in the pistes holding up better throughout the season.

I think the photo above is quite common throughout at the moment....

I think the effect of "the snow coming late" is more likely to be seen next season than this season..... my rationale being that those tourists who will really be worried about it at the moment are those who have already booked for the early season and from what I understand those who do are becoming fewer and fewer.... OK so the peak weeks are still getting booked but that's more by those who want to go away for Christmas and not those who are aching for skiing.. so if they're away for Christmas/New Year and the snow is poor then they're still away.

As for the impact being acarried over to next year.. if you have booked for this early season and are sitting biting your nails about the conditions and then your fears are realised then are you likely to book for the same period as early for next season?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

everyone should know that booking before the new year is always and always has been a bit of a gamble... I knew when I booked a couple of months back, not really worried yet, still over 3 weeks to go Smile

Help!!

What is the real cost to the resort of a poor start to the season

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