Alberta’s Rocky Mountain ski areas face an uncertain future as they struggle to compete for customers in the face of strict development restrictions in Canada’s national parks, a new study by a University of Calgary researcher suggests.
Already hurting from several years of irregular snowfall and fallout from the global tourism downturn, provincial ski operators received low marks for competitiveness compared to other Canadian resorts in the study released last week by the Haskayne School of Business.
National park resorts near Banff (Lake Louise, Sunshine Village and Mount Norquay) and at Jasper (Marmot Basin) ranked 11th and 12th out of 13 Canadian ski areas in the study by tourism management professor Simon Hudson.
Hudson attributed much of the low rating to the resorts’ inability to compete with burgeoning ski areas outside national parks, which don’t face the same stringent development rules.
“It is impossible to do any substantial upgrading or long-term planning of resorts as our government keeps threatening to cut back ski area operations and restrict future expansion, and does not permit accommodation on the hills,” he said. “In my opinion, it is vital for Parks Canada to take more of a leadership role in ensuring their survival.”
But a government spokesman said the national parks are not the place for large-scale resort developments, and there are plenty of amenities within easy access such as hotels and visitor centres.
“We are not in the real estate development business,” said Charlie Zinkan, executive director of Mountain Parks Canada. “Clearly, limits are needed in our national parks.”
Zinkan said any competitive disadvantage resort operators might face from park restrictions are more than equalized by the fact they operate in the midst of world-class wilderness areas that attract tourists from around the world. He noted Rockies resort operators have yet to submit to a government request two years ago to develop long-range vision statements for their areas.
But Crosbie Cotton, director of the National Parks Ski Areas Association, said resorts are struggling to develop long-range plans in the face of sweeping changes introduced two years ago by Heritage Minister Sheila Copps.
Resorts lease their land from the federal government and are unable to add new facilities such as on-hill accommodations without Ottawa’s permission. “We’re not even allowed to cut down a few trees. What type of 15-year mission statement can we come up with?
Long term, it will be impossible to be competitive unless Ottawa changes its policies,” Cotton said.
Alberta ski areas are already feeling the effects as recreationists head for newer, more elaborate resorts in other provinces, he added.
“Lots of them are going elsewhere . . . we’ve never asked to be like Whistler – just please let us be competitive.”
The three Banff resorts were grouped together as one area for the ranking. The study looked at 50 aspects including infrastructure, services, environmental stewardship, marketing, vision and human resources policies.
