What would Responsible Skiing look like?

Veronica Tonge, one of the ICRT’s alumni, organised a one day conference at the Ski & Snowboard Show at Earls Court last week addressing the question What would Responsible Skiing look like? 90 people from ten countries participated and heard a diverse group of speakers from Responsible Skiing, ABTA The
Travel Association, The Ski Club of Great Britain, Neilson Active,
Eurostar, Snowcarbon, Alpe D’Huez, The Austrian National Tourist Board,
Crystal Ski, Whistler Blackcomb, The Green Tourism Business Scheme and
Exodus.

Krippendorf came to responsible tourism as a result of his critique of the negative impacts of tourism in alpine resorts and it was no surprise that skiing raises lots of issues – around pistes, artificial snow, ski lifts, energy, water, waste, congestion and traffic, �trampling� and disturbance, planning and architecture, seasonality, the maintenance of smaller businesses and viable local communities – with which we are familiar from warmer destinations.  Many of the callenges are familiar, although the response in the particular natural and cultural environments of snow resorts reflect the particular environment.

You can find out more about the conference at www.responsibleskiing.com/responsible-skiing-conference-2011.html and download the presentations and audio files.