Impacts of snow conditions on tourism demand in Austrian ski areas

Töglhofer, Christoph; Eigner, Franz; Prettenthaler, Franz

doi:10.3354/cr00939

Cited by 88 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…respectively the number of days with snow on the ground (Töglhofer et al, 2011) and with suitable conditions for skiing (a minimum of 20 cm of snow with a density of 400 kg m −3 , Marke et al, 2014). The following number of days were calculated:…”

Section: Observations and Modelling Of The Seasonal Snow Accumulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determination of snowmaking efficiency on a ski slope from observations and modelling of snowmaking events and seasonal snow accumulation

et al. 2017

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Abstract. The production of Machine Made (MM) snow is now generalized in ski resorts and represents the most common method of adaptation for mitigating the impact of a lack of snow on skiing. Most investigations of correlations between snow conditions and the ski industry's economy focus on the production of MM snow though not one of these has taken into account the efficiency of the snowmaking process. The present study consists of observations of snow conditions (depth and mass) using a Differential GPS method and snow density coring, following snowmaking events and seasonal snow accumulation in Les Deux Alpes ski resort (French Alps). A detailed physically based snowpack model accounting for grooming and snowmaking was used to compute the seasonal evolution of the snowpack and compared to the observations. Our results show that approximately 30 % of the water mass can be recovered as MM snow within 10 m from the center of a MM snow pile after production and 50 % within 20 m. Observations and simulations on the ski slope were relatively consistent with 60 % (±10 %) of the water mass used for snowmaking within the limits of the ski slope. Losses due to thermodynamic effects were estimated in the current case example to be less than 10 % of the total water mass. These results suggest that even in ideal conditions for production a significant fraction of the water used for snowmaking can not be found as MM snow within the limits of the ski slope with most of the missing fraction of water. This is due to site dependent characteristics (e.g. meteorological conditions, topography).

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Section: Observations and Modelling Of The Seasonal Snow Accumulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determination of snowmaking efficiency on a ski slope from observations and modelling of snowmaking events and seasonal snow accumulation

et al. 2017

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“…Another strand of the literature has more specifically dealt with potential and/or actual behavioral adaptations on the demand side (Behringer et al 2000;Hamilton et al 2007;Unbehaun et al 2008;Shih et al 2009;Pickering et al 2010;Dawson et al 2011;Töglhofer et al 2011). Methodologically, these studies rely either on surveys of skiers or on quantitative analyses based on regression techniques.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the former case, results indicate that skiers would very probably move to more snow-reliable ski areas and ski less often. In the latter case, Töglhofer et al (2011) for instance analyzed 185 Austrian ski resorts between 1973 and 2006 in order to quantify past demand changes due to short-term climate variability. They estimated an overall change of 0.6-1.9 % in overnight stays with a one standard deviation change in snow conditions.…”

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confidence: 99%

Impact of snow variability on the Swiss winter tourism sector: implications in an era of climate change

Gonseth

2013

Climatic Change

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With its numerous mountain regions and its well developed winter tourism infrastructures, Switzerland is a country whose tourism sector is known to be sensitive to snowpack variability. With climate change-which is predicted to have negative impacts on snow depths and duration-the need for accurately assessing the sensitivity of winter tourism consumption to changing snow conditions is reinforced. Taking advantage of newly available data on visitation rates at Swiss ski areas, we analyze the effect of snow conditions on skier visits using standard panel data regression techniques. We assume the magnitude of this effect to be conditional on the level of snowmaking investments. Higher snowmaking investments should lead to a lower sensitivity. Our results validate this hypothesis and also shed light on the competitive interactions between lower and higher lying ski areas located in the same tourism region. In fact, our results show that better snow conditions in the former reduces visitation rates in the latter. Eventually, we find that ski areas benefiting from sunny conditions tend to have, ceteris paribus, more skier visits. This suggests additional impacts if climate change were to modify sunshine duration in mountain regions.

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“…Ein direkter Zusammenhang zwischen Schneebedingungen und Übernachtungen konnte für österreichische Skidestinationen nachgewiesen werden (Falk, 2010;Töglhofer et al, 2011).…”

Section: Schnee-basierter Wintertourismusunclassified

“…Jedoch wurde auch festgestellt, dass sich der Zusammenhang im Zeitraum 1972 / 73 bis 2006 / 07 abgeschwächt hat, was auf die Verbreitung der künstlichen Beschneiung zurückzuführen ist (Töglhofer et al, 2011). In vielen der bisherigen Studien wurde diese in der Folgenabschätzung für den Wintertourismus bisher nicht berücksichtigt.…”

Section: Schnee-basierter Wintertourismusunclassified