The snowsports season, which just finished last Sunday, 10 May, has been another excellent one for Scotland, with no fewer than 230,634 “skier days” recorded at the five mountain ski areas.

Using current data, during winter and spring 2014-15, skiers and snowboarders have generated revenue of £23.2M for the Scottish and UK economy, spending not only at the snowsports resorts but also in nearby local areas. While an estimated £4.6M was spent at the snowsports areas, the remainder – £18.6M – went to accommodation providers, places to eat and drink, shops, filling stations and more.

“In many ways, this season was very similar to last year’s,” said Chair of Ski-Scotland Heather Negus. “We had excellent snow at most resorts and the five snowsports areas were able to operate for a total of 463 days, better than last season’s 441.”

Although results are similar for both seasons, during the previous winter Scottish resorts enjoyed better, deeper snowfall than many world-renowned resorts, resulting in considerable media interest which Ski-Scotland was able to build on and so attract more customers. The winter just past also brought great dumps of snow almost everywhere, with unprecedented late-season powder in huge quantities for Glencoe and CairnGorm Mountain, which gave a great boost to the end of the season. Heather continued: “this great, winter-quality powder brought out more skiers and boarders to slide late-season. Usually by April people are thinking of other activities, but not this year, when many chose to ski and board in T-shirts and shorts!”

During the season, the mountain resorts were also able to start new developments, with financial support from the Scottish Government providing the catalyst for investment by the ski companies. This work will continue over the summer months, so skiers and boarders can look forward to improvements for next winter.

Detailed final figures will hopefully come out in a week or two. From what I can gather, Glencoe, Nevis Range and the Lecht are up on last season, while the overall national figure is down around 4700 skier days on last season.

Here's a donut chart of market share for the 2015 season and for comparison market share over the 5 seasons of 2006 to 2010 (had the data for all areas to hand), but it includes a good range of seasons in terms of weather and snow cover.







Edited 1 times. Last edit at 22.02hrs Sun 24 May 15 by alan.

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Interesting numbers. Being a physicist I rehashed the numbers into a column graphic to emphasise the loss/gain of each centre.



Glenshee had issues this year with snow cover so putting this to one side in the analysis Nevis Range could be regarded as approximately the same but they need to keep an eye on the trend over the next few years. The Lecht is a specialist market and they are holding their own even with a more challenging season this year.

The one I would be concerned about is Cairngorm. This was a good consistent season with top to bottom skiing much of the time. After mid term the place was full of snow but very quiet for weeks on end, including the weekends.

I can hear CG management grumbling here we go again winterhighland bashing again what do they know about ski resorts. But for those who know me and follow my posts I think I am possibly the most pro CG here and it is rare for me to have a negative slant. Marketing is an area that transcends operational technicalities, You do not need 30 years in ski centre operations to analyse the business.

When I skied at Glencoe this year I was pleasantly surprised at the improvements and attitude of the staff on the mountain. Their willingness to interact and explain what is going on was so different to CG. I also noticed the clients at Glencoe were very different. The people were I would say towards the upper age groups and the level of skiing ability was significantly higher than at CG. It would appear the experts have left CG and gone to Glencoe. This is where the grey pound has gone.

CG say they are now going for the family approach, there is one flaw in this. Ok the kids are happy but what about Dad? He wants to have some fun too, and then Mum wants to dump the kids with Dad for a while and have a bit of a challenge.

Another approach at CG is to attract the children, the lower cost tickets this year showed that. But what happens when these children are able to earn money and drive, they don't hang around and off they go to the more challenging terrain. A few jumps and parks do not hold their attention and the park rats are not the high spenders on the mountain are they?

To alienate a sector of the market the 35 - 65 year old advanced skier is throwing money away. This is the age group with disposable income and are likely to buy the expensive cloths in the new shop. CG was the centre that could cater for all abilities.

I have seen some positive changes Natural Retreats have made this year, along with some major gaffs that will cost them money. I hope they are spending a good amount of time analysing their market. In my opinion, and I have had a fairly successful career dealing with much higher budgets than the whole of NR corporation put together, they don't have it right, yet... Lets see how they get on next year.






Edited 1 times. Last edit at 09.27hrs Mon 25 May 15 by WindyMiller.

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Interesting statistics and comments . Be good to see the 2010- 2014 figures too.


Helen

Graeme, good analysis thanks and much appreciated

Be interesting to see what the trends are over the next few years and if NR can halt the slump.

I think they maybe benefitted a bit this year by it being a relatively poor snow year in the east but conditions tend to average out where Glenshee will also hoover up a lot of their usual punters with a better experience and more skiing variety in general when GM etc. is open.

Cheers

Freeheel

PS your reports on CG snow are also appreciated and with winter not quite letting up yet hopefully this thread still has a bit of life in it before summer bites.

Interesting chart WindyM, thanks for bringing life to the numbers.

I agree you could put the Glenshee numbers down to the poor snow in the east this past season. Clearly all the centres can learn from what Andy & team have done at Glencoe, impressive growth there (although snow record over the past 2 seasons helps). With the new lift improvements at Glencoe, snow permitting, I can see that number going up - although from this season it's probably (in my opinion) the car park size that will constrain further growth at Glencoe.

Cairngorm is just a hassle and not worth going at weekends and holiday periods, queues everywhere - and cutting down on food areas e.g. removal of the day lodge bar area (which I really liked) seems like an own goal.

Pity that our ski centres are such a "weekend market" ... that is probably the biggest constraint on further growth - although from some of the good days mid-week this past season, they are just as busy mid-week when conditions are special.

Stephen

Totaly agree Graham,
CGM needs to rehash its approach to the more advanced skiers. Without the west wall area open it offers nothing unless you self power to access stuff and we know that story dont we :-)

I am considering an all area pass or NR season ticket for next winter. With full cover I still like CGM but hate the constraints placed on us/me. I should not have to worry if Joe Public sees and follows me.


I liked the rehash and would like to see the actual numbers, based on post at top of the page.
Total of 230,634

CGM 33.2% = 76,570
GS 25.6% = 59,042
GC 15.2% = 35,056
L 13.4% = 30,904
NR 12.6% = 29,059

That seems to be substantially down on the previous 2 years for CGM and GS at least.


PS How does the all area pass work? Do you need to queue up and get a day ticket at each area!!!

Nope. Your All Area Pass is your ticket for the day, just like an individual season pass at whatever resort you choose to visit.

One thing I've pondered about the numbers is how do they take account of skier days for season ticket holders (given that they are not checked anywhere - well maybe some resorts do, at Glencode it's straight to the lifts which is great).

For example, 5 or 6 years ago, I would typically ski 4 - 6 days per year in Scotland. I started getting a season ticket a few years back, and this past season for example I got 16 days at the Coe.

I presume some kind of average per season ticket holder is used in the above numbers? Or not at all?

Stephen

With the new system at CG you are clocked each time you go through a gate. Last year I managed to pull up my records and see how many days I had plus which runs. The run data was not very accurate as the gates were a bit unreliable last year, better this year. I tried to get my data this year but when I pulled my account it said zero days and that was after at least 15 so not sure what was going on, may be the data collection is switched off this year.

Graeme

Stephen,

A skier number is calculated for all the resorts that do not have a ticketing systems. This number is based on length of ski season. This figure is then multiplied by the number of season passes sold. This number varies year to year but is typically between 8 and 12 days per season ticket holder.

Good observations Windy

I was until last year a long term season ticket holder (from 1982) at CG. However over the last 5 years I have noticed a drop off in customer care aspect of their business & therefore took the decision to move to my nearest centre at Glenshee.

This move, for personal & weather/ snow related reasons proved to be not too successful but the attitude of the staff, both catering & hill staff was far more positive and to a degree provided a far better experience than at CG.

We made a road trip to Glencoe & Nevis at the end of March and were VERY pleased with our reception at both but in particular Glencoe.
Being in the category of older and reasonably competent skiers, both areas offered far more than the CG experience currently provides given the virtual non access to the Ciste side of the mountain at CG.

The biggest difference, again particularly at Glencoe, was the staff attitude and helpfulness - from carpark to top of the mountain we were extremely impressed with all.

This situation should be of MAJOR concern to not just CG but the many commercial enterprises in the Spey valley who to a great degree rely on the CG mountain experience both summer & winter to attract business.

The Lecht provides good support for a smaller & generally less experienced market & does so reasonably well but tow breakdowns seem to be on the rise.

I believe an ungent review is required on most aspects of CG buisness but most certainly the value to skier proposition on offer.
I agree that the grey market of competent skiers with disposable income is one they ignore at their peril

Cold Smoke Convert

Hi,

from a Winterhighland perspective on resort postings and views and with no particular conclusions:

Resort Views Posts Last Date
Cairngorm 46,543 258 14 Jun
Glencoe 43,065 301 22 Jun
Glenshee 28,986 184 02 Apr
Nevis Range 12,556 93 23 Apr
Lecht 3,784 25 15 Mar
Pennines 1,551 12 05 Feb
Raise 628 3 05 Apr