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Russia Prepares New Cold War Waiting For Western Invasion
By Craig Altschul
May 20, 2008
The ski world's eyes may be about to focus on Whistler and Vancouver as the 2010 Winter Olympics draw nigh, so we suggested The Industry Report's European correspondent Patrick Thorne pop north from his Inverness, Scotland, home to see how Mother Russia is parlaying its long fascination with winter sports and its nouveau riche ability to spread its wealth over the Alps into a successful Olympiad come 2014.
Those Winter Games were awarded to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi where then-Russian President Vladimir Putin declared at the awarding, "On the seashore you can enjoy a fine spring day, but up in the mountains, it's winter ... real snow is guaranteed." The planet's leading ski resort planners are well beyond the largely complete Canadian development and are now firmly ensconced in Russia.
Thorne notes that "although China has made the headlines more than its geographically giant neighbor in terms of the growth of winter sports over the past decade, it is the nouveau riche Russians that have the serious cash right now. They are exercising the ability to travel to the Alps to spend it, and have the desire to buy world class quality experiences both on the mountain and in the resort.
Russia's fascination with winter sports long pre-dates the end of the socialist era, Thorne explains. There were rudimentary ski hills located around major cities in the communist era. "Some were even operating free of charge for the downtrodden proletariat, so it can't have been all bad," he laughs.
Europe's highest ski lifts on Mt Elbrus in the Southern Caucasus also date from the communist era. Skiing was even reported to be a prescribed activity, again at no cost, for workers in the grim mining communities created in Siberia where 24-hour darkness in the winter needed an activity antidote.
Two of the country's most powerful men, Putin, and multi-billionaire Roman Abromovitch, are both avid skiers and are playing starring roles as icons for the sport.
Putin often was seen skiing on his local hill in Moscow and chatting to fellow skiers who did not need to fear being kept away by his "keepers." Other suburban hills have reinvented themselves to Western standards with snowmaking, quality trail preparation, and lift systems.
Russians seem to love buying exclusive facilities even more than wealthy Americans, Thorne reports. A private ski hill near Moscow is reported to charge even more for a day pass on its one double chairlift than a Vail peak season window ticket. Russia also beat the U.S. (if not China or Dubai) in erecting the country's first indoor snowdome in March.
Wealthy Russians have invaded the staid Alpine nations in force, causing a few raised eyebrows from Western Europeans purporting to be displeased at a reputation for vulgarity amongst the new Russian visitors although, Thorne suggests, "it's more likely simple jealousy at their superior buying power."
Kitzbuhel introduced a quota on the number of Russian visitors, while other resorts have welcomed the Russian invasion thanks in part to the fact that the Russians celebrate New Year a fortnight after everybody else. That makes a low season, second week in January suddenly high season. Waitresses, way down the money chain, have commented they can cope with "vulgar Russians" since they tip far better than visitors of other nations.
The Kempinski Hotel in St Moritz, popular with Russian guests, says it endeavours to balance out the number of guests arriving from different nations so no guest feels they are in a dominated minority.
However the resort's fifth five-star hotel, the Carlton, re-opened last December, in part targeting the Russian market. That perhaps eased the pressure of the Kempinski and just reported a ‘brilliant' first season.
Thorne says North American expertise, in the form of resort designer contracts and the lucrative hiring of resort executives from top U.S. resorts, along with state of the art equipment from Dopplemayr and the like, have all been brought in by the Russians to ensure the resort experience they will begin to deliver over the next few years will be truly world class.
"The chance to experience this quality of resort experience at home should encourage at least some of the increasing numbers of holidaying Russians to ski closer to home," says Thorne. "It could begin to bring in a whole new economic sector to Russia - international guests who want to ski there for a Vail-like resort experience (but probably cheaper)."
That new ski area on Psekhako Ridge is aiming to have 18 trails and 13 lifts with beds for 8,000 people. Completion is slated for 2011 with a gradual roll out over the intervening years.
"This is the first sign of the preparations of Sochi as host of the 2014 Winter Olympics," Putin told jumpsuit-clad workers who built new ski lifts and other facilities at the complex in Krasnaya Polyana near Sochi, a Black Sea resort in southern Russia. "We still must put up a large quantity of sports facilities here at Krasnaya Polyana. I'm sure this will be done on schedule and with the same quality as this one."
A second resort, Rosa Khutor, looks to be bigger than Psekhako Ridge and a year ago lured Roger McCarthy, then Vail Resorts COO, from the Rockies, to run the resort.
It will stage most of the Alpine ski events at the 2014 Games and boast three eight-passenger gondolas, four six-seater chairs and two quads at build out
Hold the vodka, at least for now. Remember, the U.S. boycotted things the last time around. But, that was during the summer, of course. Does anyone want to predict the world's political climate six years from now?
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