Snow tourism reactivates after a frozen year

Spain is known worldwide for its sun and beaches, but there are more options when the cold is pressing. The Constitution Bridge is traditionally the starting point of the ski season, a business that before the pandemic generated, only in the about 30 stations that are spread throughout the country, billings exceeding 120 million euros and It employed more than 3,000 people thanks to the almost six million users who visited them to enjoy sports and nature.

Last year many could not even open their doors due to the prevention measures imposed by the pandemic -whose outbreak in March 2020 already forced the early closing of that season- and those that did were very limited by the restrictions sanitary. Due, their volume of activity plummeted almost 70% to figures never before recorded. It should be noted that this percentage arises from the comparison with the 2019/20 season, where this premature closure has already reduced the influx by 12%, so the decline is greater if possible.

A year later, the storm seemed to finally dissipate, but the detection a few days ago of a new variant of the coronavirus threatens that optimism that was breathed in the sector. Weather forecasts and health developments advanced a return to the pre-pandemic figures in this 2021/22 course, but the tension due to the covid rebound again and the sector holds its breath although without losing the good prospects.

At the moment, 80% of the Spanish resorts start their activity this season at some point on the bridge, according to reports from the Tourist Association of Ski and Mountain Resorts (Atudem). The copious snowfalls have been aligned with a sector that this year more than ever expects the saying to be fulfilled and is the advance of a year of goods.

Nationals to the rescue

In the Valencian Community there are no ski resorts but there are a lot of fans and, at least until now, the rebound in the pandemic after the irruption of the omicron variant has not frozen activity related to snow tourism. The highest regional representative of travel agencies, Eva Blasco, ensures that the level of reserves for these trips is “very high.”

And he provides some keys to this high demand: “The new variant is paralyzing the vast majority of international movements, a situation that already happened last year. However, this in turn favors an increase in domestic trips and on these dates the snow is one of the star destinations“explains Blasco.

The also president of CEV Valencia adds two other variables that play in favor of the ski resorts and all their peripheral businesses. On the one hand, it highlights that this sector, unlike sun and beach tourism, “does not have such a high dependence on international visitors”, so a return to possible restrictions on mobility in Europe would not hit it as hard as it does happen on the coast. Furthermore, Spaniards are not used to looking for snow outside either: “There are those who go to the Alps, but it is quite residual. Above all, trips within Spain predominate.”

Already in Valencian code, Blasco also detects a dammed demand among snow fans of the Valencian Community, since last year the perimeter confinement of the autonomy -and many others- prevented this type of trips that now have the green light .

The vice president of the European Association of Travel Agencies and Tour Operators indicates that there are two main types of trips to the snow that are successful among Valencians. On the one hand, those “short or even one-day” trips, which are usually made to the nearest stations, especially those of Valdelinares or Javalambre from Teruel, just an hour and a half from Valencia by car. And on the other, where travel agencies intervene the most, those that set out for the Pyrenees. “They are longer trips and they are usually contracted with travel agencies”, details Blasco, who highlights that “they really like the Aragonese and Catalan Pyrenees”. As for the meteorological situation, he celebrates that “this year the weather is also good.”

The president of Atudem, Jesus Ibáñez, also gives off optimism: “The prospects are very good for the sector. These days it is snowing, it is cold, the seasons are opening their facilities and people are beginning to talk about snow,” he says.

The forecast of the top leader of the Spanish ski resorts foresees that “if a new wave is not unleashed” the national market “will become more dynamic as before the pandemic” and that the return of “part of the international” is also expected. “We are very excited,” he adds.

After the worst year that snow tourism remembers – the turnover fell from more than 123 million in 2019 to just 37 -, Ibáñez highlights that “the first great triumph” is that no season has lowered the blind despite “cruelty” with which the pandemic has primed the sector. Quite the contrary, he applauds that “they have not stood idly by” but rather “have invested to improve the experience of their customers.”

Related news

In fact, according to the figures of the state organization, this year investment records have been broken despite the “extremely complicated economic context”, reaching 38.2 million. It represents the highest disbursement in the last 15 years, with Formigal, Sierra Nevada and Baqueira-Beret bringing together almost three out of every four euros invested. By items, the improvements in ski lifts and chair lifts (14.03 million) and in adaptation of slopes (13.98) have taken most of the total amount.

Another symptom that points to the good start of the season in the sector is the occupancy figure for rural accommodation, which according to the national association of owners shows at least 60% occupancy throughout the country and reaches 100% in high-rise areas. mountain where most of the ski resorts are located.