Considering the role of climate and demographic changes on the ski industry

Over the next decades the ski tourism industry in the Alps must deal with two major challenges: demographic change will lead to aging skiers and declining skier demand, and, climate change will result in a decreasing number of operating days and optimal ski days, reduced snow reliability, and increasing operating costs in some destinations. Both impact factors cause a change in travel behavior of ski tourists.

In this study, Witting and Schmude estimate the impact of climate and demographic change on skier days and future turnover at the Sudelfeld ski area in Bavaria, German Alps. Furthermore, they present a rough indication on how many non-skiing tourists have to be won by the destination to substitute for the calculated changes in demand. The results demonstrate that climate change will have a solely negative impact on skier demand for the 2030s and 2040s compared to demographic change, and this causes a change of the destination’s turnover from +11.8% up to -56.4% in the same period compared to the average of the last four winter seasons. Thus, adaptation measures need to be identified to reduce potential economic losses in the next decades.

Cite: Witting, M., & Schmude, J. (2019). Impacts of climate and demographic change on future skier demand and its economic consequences – Evidence from a ski resort in the German Alps. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, 26, 50–60. doi: 10.1016/j.jort.2019.03.002

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