What future for winter tourism under global warming?

Skiing is no longer the money-making business it used to be and alpine resorts need to rethink their business model before it is too late, argues Christophe Clivaz, an expert in sustainable tourism at the University of Lausanne. Two-thirds of the Swiss cable car companies depend on public money for their survival: this is the worrying fact emerging from a study carried out by the University of Applied Sciences at Lucerne. Mild winters punish low and mid-altitude resorts, resulting in an inexorable decline in the number of skiers. To stay competitive, many resorts invest heavily in their ski lifts and artificial snowmaking. It is a strategy rejected by Clivaz, a professor at the Institute of Geography and Sustainability at the University of Lausanne, and co-author of the book "Winter Tourism: Climate Challenge". swissinfo.ch: For the third year in a row, low and mid-altitude ski resorts suffered from the lack of snow during the New Year holiday ...