Cairngorm funicular
A government-funded report has called for the construction of new ski resorts to be built higher in the Scottish mountains. The report – commissioned by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, says that “Scottish resorts will have to develop, where possible, the snowsports experience at higher altitudes and improve access to higher snow fields by rationalising / replacing surface tows with chairlifts, creating accessible mini resorts higher up the mountain”.
The report notes that skiing in Scotland currently has a total economic value of £30 million per year, with 194 direct full-time equivalent jobs at the resorts and a further 440 jobs supported elsewhere, but predicts that with no action taken these figures will continue to fall. The ten year average for the number of skier days in Scotland has fallen by two thirds since 1991. The appeal to visitors of the £19.5 million publicly-funded funicular railway on Cairngorm is also said to be declining; with value for money raised as a concern with the attraction in summer. The researchers also called for new tax perks for Scottish ski-ing, through reduced rates of VAT, and suggested that further public money should be spent on the resorts. Mountain biking facilities, zip-wires from the tops of the lifts and the construction of summer toboggan runs are all mentioned as development options. The report says a further investment of £22 million is needed into snowsports combined with a further £7 million in diversification activities such as these to turn around the decline.
Any further expansion of skiing facilities is likely to be highly controversial; impacts on other activities such as hillwalking are outside the scope of the report. A previous study by SNH published earlier in the year estimated the value of walking and landscape to the Scottish economy at £900 million annually, with nature-based tourism valued at £1.4 billion.