Ski areas limit services or close completely. They could develop their taste in March, says the head of the Association of Mountain Resorts
The current weather has made the season quite difficult for the sites. How are they doing?
Yes, the weather greatly complicates it. After the Christmas holidays and at the end of the year, there was traditionally a high number of visitors on the mountains, the ski areas were also relatively well prepared, but especially the heat and rainy weather caused a smaller number of skiers on the slopes. This would still be acceptable, but the beginning of January continues and some ski areas further limit the scope of their services or are forced to operate temporarily. This of course means more losses.
How did the Christmas holidays and New Year’s Eve go?
At the beginning of December, thanks to the frosts, it was possible to make technical snow on the ski slopes, and there was enough natural snow on the mountains until Christmas. Unfortunately, at the end of the year, due to the already mentioned snow, the natural snow on the mountains melted and only ski slopes with a layer of technical snow remained in operation. Most of our ski areas continued to function. It is technical snowmaking that confirms its positive role, without the operation of mountain resorts on the Christmas holidays being possible.
Will the campuses improve their appetite during the February holidays?
Both visitors and operators are hoping for a quick turnaround in the weather and that it will be normal winter from mid-January. However, it will not be possible to make up for the losses, because attendance in February is traditionally high and the centers cannot “inflate” their capacity. There is some potential in March. If the exceptionally good visit from last year were repeated, it would help in the overall rating of the season.
The resorts could therefore start making snow from mid-January and prepare for the second half of the season. Ebut energy is many times more expensive now. So will they use snowmaking to the same extent as in previous years?
Technologies are already advanced, they create snow more efficiently and consume less energy – perhaps ten to fifteen percent. But even if the situation with energy, inflation and other influences is difficult, the ski areas will prepare the slopes as in previous years. It will certainly be necessary to save money, but it must not be at the expense of the quality of the services provided. But it is important to mention that it is not enough to just have frost to make snow. Some centers are dealing with problems with a lack of water. Those who do not have a dam or storage tanks must take surface water from streams, where they are limited by the current flow and the permit for the amount of water taken. If the frost and favorable water conditions do not come together, then snow on the slopes is a problem.
What is the problem with taking water from the stream?
It’s not like you just throw a hose in the stream and it works. A permit from the water authority is required for this. Every stream has a certain flow rate, and this allows, in addition to the amount of water taken, also prescribes a minimum residual flow rate that must always be maintained in the stream. So if in that case it flows 210 liters per second and the minimum residual flow is two hundred liters, then you can only take the ten liters. And that must be clearly respected.
So the trend is clear. Accumulation tanks.
Yes, it is. When the reservoirs are well placed, they benefit both ski areas and nature. The area can draw from them in times of frost, which is far more efficient, and the accumulation simultaneously protects residual flows in small streams.
I assume that conservationists, who are also against snowmaking, probably won’t be too enthusiastic about storage tanks either. OFis it even possible to build one here in the Giant Mountains, for example?
As part of the implementation of the amendment to the Act on Nature and Landscape Protection, a new care plan for national parks was also created. In the original proposals, there was an extreme suggestion from the park administration that storage tanks in the Krkonoše Mountains would only be built on the underground sides of the floors below the buildings, for example the parking lot, in order to exclude any impact on nature. Apart from the fact that such buildings would be many times more expensive, the water would be warmer than outside, etc., there are not enough arguments for such a measure. Look at these reservoirs in the Alps, for example, where there are hundreds in the wild, including protected areas. We are glad that, after a rational discussion, the possibilities for the construction of these reservoirs were finally expanded, with the understanding that each project must be assessed individually.
As far as snowmaking itself is concerned, we try to explain that technical snow is just water and air and also that water is temporarily retained in the landscape in a different state. We also have expert studies processed, which prove that the accumulation reservoirs and the snowmaking itself do not have negative effects on nature. Two large research projects on the effects of snowfall on the water regime and biota were also commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment and KRNAP, and their results only confirm our conclusions. It turns out that the solution is to build storage tanks that catch the excess water, and when the frost comes, they can quickly and efficiently spray it on the hill.
It is clearly a clash of two conflicting interests. Business on the one hand and nature conservation on the other…
They were happy if the discussions would move to a level where everyone would listen to the opposing side’s arguments as well. It is clear that we want good conditions for the campuses, but at the same time we perceive the need to protect nature, we always live and do business in it. We expect a rational and fair debate from the nature protection authorities, which will be based on the results of studies that were created on both sides. It is necessary to balance the issue of nature protection and life in mountain regions.
You can experience it yourself in Špindlerův Mlýn. To what extent is it, together with the surrounding municipalities, dependent on the area in terms of tourism?
I think fundamentally. According to the studies we have, every crown spent in the ski resort brings another seven crowns spent in restaurants, hotels and other services. Of course, it depends on the location, but in the nearest cities, a quarter of the people are employed thanks to tourism. And it is also important to mention that villages and towns such as Špindlerův Mlýna or Pece pod Sněžkou have, according to the budget determination, income taxes according to the number of residents with permanent residence, so in the case of Špindlerův Mlýna per thousand inhabitants. But in winter, there are maybe twelve thousand people here, for whom the city has to take away waste, have water capacity for them, sewage treatment plants, take care of cleaning the roads from snow, transport to the campus, etc.
And that’s basically how it is everywhere in those border areas. Most people only know the top resorts, of which there are ten in the country, but there are one hundred and fifty ski resorts in the Czech Republic that have at least three lifts. And these campuses usually affect entire regions. Within the association, we also communicate with the mayors of the affected municipalities, so we know what problems they have. It must be perceived that there is often nothing but tourism in these places, so they are happy for tourists to go there.
Will these municipalities not be able to get more money from the state?
They will receive almost nothing from the state in connection with tourism. They can still have income from local fees for accommodation, but this is not enough. In this matter, the creation of a law to support tourism, which all associations in the tourism industry are now trying to enforce, would help. The law created a framework for the structure and financing of tourism, where three parties – municipalities, entrepreneurs and the state – would work in symbiosis. Almost all neighboring countries have such a law, and we really need it, because the competitiveness of the Czech Republic in the tourism industry is decreasing year by year. In the ranking of the Travel&Tourism Competitiveness Report, which evaluates about ten criteria within the tourism industry, we are in 38th place out of 140 evaluated countries. For example, the CzechTourism agency has a budget of 373 million crowns for the entire next year. These are similar resources available to a tourist organization in an Austrian valley, for example Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis, or Seefeld.
How much money would be needed for Czech centers to match the quality of, for example, Austrian ones?
There is a terrible disparity in this. The ten largest centers in the Czech Republic account for approximately sixty percent of the visitors. These investment centers have something like that. At least as much as possible. Even if they have a number of loans and everything they earn, they immediately invest in further development, because if they stop, others will overtake them. So we don’t really want any subsidized titles, because they pretty much destroy the equal business environment. Rather, it would help entities in the mountains if the conditions for business and development improved. Our foreign guests, when they come here for our annual conference of mountain resorts and hear about the conditions in which we operate, are quite surprised at the good level of our resorts.
I will give one example for everyone. The maintenance of cross-country skiing tracks here in the Krkonoše Mountains involves the region in the order of hundreds of thousands of crowns, but it costs tens of millions. The rest is paid by the ski areas, which ensure the maintenance. It’s the same with ski buses. And there are systems for that, they work in Austria, for example, you just need to be inspired by them. The municipality, together with the region and entrepreneurs, will create a platform there, to which they belong and from which non-profit activities, such as the mentioned ski buses, but also joint promotion, projects and so on, are paid for.
And are there any programs from which municipalities draw support for tourism?
Every year, the Ministry for Regional Development issues a so-called national program to support tourism. There are about 140 million in it, which will be divided between the projects of entrepreneurs and organizations in the tourism industry. From the point of view of entrepreneurs, however, this is help on a small scale and is directed towards activities in which it is difficult to use up the funds at all. The support that is now emerging is tentatively approved as part of the tourism industry in the national recovery plan. These are energy saving and digitization projects. And if everything goes well, it should be about five billion, which after a long time will be some real money that can help tourism after the covid years.
And what about the ski resort?
The operator has a long-term lease of the local ski area from the owners. In addition to the contractual fee, they have to earn not only for operations, but especially for investments. These are also implemented, which ultimately means that the campus is significantly modernized and improved, but of course such services are not cheap. For some clients, prices may be a limiting factor, but the high number of visitors shows that there is considerable interest in such services. I believe that further development of the center will follow, not only towards the winter season, but also towards the still significant period from spring to autumn.
I was surprised that today it can already snow even above zero. How does it work?
This unique technology exists, but it is currently only in two places in the country. It basically works like a giant freezer where ice chips are scraped around the perimeter and pushed out through hoses. The snowmobiles then take it down the slope.
One such facility is on Ještěd, where the lower station is relatively low, only about 600 meters above sea level, so it uses it to snow the finish line of the slope. And the second one is on Monínec, which is a relatively short slope and in combination with parts of conventional technical snowmaking will prepare the slope for operation already in November. For large areas, this special technology is not very usable yet, because the snow produced in this way is not enough by itself. It needs to be supplemented with snow from conventional cannons or natural snow.
So far more widespread is normal conventional snowmaking, which works by taking water from a stream or reservoir, adding air and forcing it into a pole or guns that spray it onto the slope. This requires at least minus three or four degrees. These facilities are normally found in the vast majority of ski resorts in our country.
Libor Knot
He is the director of the Association of Mountain Resorts. It currently brings together 65 entities from the ranks of ski area operators, subcontracting companies and also representatives of mountain towns and municipalities. The association focuses primarily on defending its interests in the area of legislation creation, helping to promote and promote their services.