STRATEGIC DECISIONS IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY BASED ON INTERNET DATA COLLECTION TECHNOLOGIES AND THEIR SPATIAL ANALYSIS

The paper offers a look the new opportunities that open up in management in the context of the development of information technology. The aim of the study is to highlight the benefits of using technologies for collecting big data and spatial statistics for making strategic decisions in the tourism industry. In the work, using the example of the ski resort “Abzakovo”, the technologies for collecting data on the Internet are shown, the spatial dependence of the data is assessed and conclusions are drawn that allow subsequent strategic decisions as to enterprises located in this territory. So are the government bodies interested in the development of this tourist zone. Thus, the analysis of the geography of the members of the “Abzakovo” group made it possible to single out a statistically significant spatial dependence of their age, which manifests itself in the neighborhood of the older members of the group near the resort. The results of the analysis of the rating of tourist infrastructure facilities in the area of the ski resort “Abzakovo” identified spatially related zones of low and high ratings.

Comparison and Analysis of Injuries At Ski Resorts in Chongli, China and Japan

Background: More researches should be needed on injuries at ski resorts in Chongli, one of the sites of the 2022 Winter Olympics.Hypothesis: In Chinese ski resorts, injury accidents should be more frequent, and the injured body parts may be related to the protective clothingMethods: In this retrospective study, injuries at ski resorts in Chongli, China and Japan were analyzed to provide a reference for the ongoing injury prevention work at ski resorts. We collected data [see Additional file 1] on injuries at Wanlong and Fulong Ski Resort in Chongli during the 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 ski seasons. We referred to the ski injury report issued in February 2020 by the Japan Ski Safety Association [see Additional file 2]. The causes of and specific body parts involved in the injuries at both the Chinese and Japanese ski resorts were analyzed.Results: During the 2019–2020 ski season at the Japanese ski resorts, 0.93 injuries occurred per 10,000 skiers, and older skiers constituted a larger proportion of those injured, with 227 (8.6%) aged over 60 years. The knee joint was the most commonly injured body part among both Chinese and Japanese skiers, whereas shoulder joint injury was the most prevalent among snowboarders. Conclusion: The two Chongli ski resorts had a higher injury rate than the Japanese ski resorts. Medical treatment should focus more on older skiers, and helmet use requires urgent promotion

Past changes in natural and managed snow reliability of French Alps ski resorts from 1961 to 2018

Snow reliability is a key climatic impact driver for the ski tourism industry, for which there is more literature regarding future projections than past observed impacts. This study provides an assessment of past changes in natural and managed snow cover reliability from 1961 to 2018 in the French Alps. In particular, we used snowmaking investment figures to infer the evolution of snowmaking coverage at the ski resort scale for 16 ski resorts in the French Alps. We find different benefits of snow management to reduce the variability and long term decrease in snow cover reliability because of the heterogeneity of the snowmaking deployment trajectories across ski resorts. The frequency of challenging conditions for ski resort operation over the 1991–2018 period increased in November and February to April compared to the reference period 1961–1990. In general, snowmaking had a positive impact on snow reliability, especially in December to January. While for the highest elevation ski resorts, snowmaking improved snow reliability for the core of the winter season, it did not counterbalance the decreasing trend in snow cover reliability for lower elevation ski resorts and in the spring.

Temporal Air Quality (NO2, O3 and PM10) Changes in Urban and Rural Stations in Catalonia during COVID-19 Lockdown: An Association with Human Mobility and Satellite Data

In this study, changes in air quality by NO2, O3 and PM10 in Barcelona metropolitan area and other parts of Catalonia during the COVID-19 lockdown with respect to pre-lockdown and to previous years (2018 and 2019) were evaluated. Selected air monitoring stations included 3 urban (Gràcia, Vall d’Hebron and Granollers), 1 control site (Fabra Observatory), 1 semi-urban (Manlleu), and 3 rural (Begur, Bellver de Cerdanya, and Juneda). NO2 lockdown levels showed a diminution, which in relative terms was maximum in two rural stations (Bellver de Cerdanya, -63% and Begur, -61%), presumably due to lower emissions from the ceasing hotel and ski resort activities during eastern holidays. In absolute terms and from an epidemiologic perspective, decrease in NO2, also reinforced by the high amount of rainfall registered in April 2020, was more relevant in the urban stations around Barcelona. O3 levels increased in the transited urban stations (Gràcia, +42%, and Granollers, +64%) due to the lower titration effect by NOx. PM10 lockdown levels decreased, mostly in Gràcia, Vall d’Hebron and Granollers (-35, -39% and -39%, respectively) due to traffic depletion (-90% in Barcelona's transport). Correlation among mobility index in Barcelona (-100% in retail & recreation) and contamination was positive for NO2 and PM10 and negative for O3 (P<0.001). Satellite images evidenced two hotspots of NO2 in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona) in April 2018 and 2019 that disappeared in 2020. Overall, the benefits of lockdown on air quality in Catalonia were evidenced with NO2, O3 and PM10 levels below WHOAQG values in most of stations opposed to the excess registered in previous years.

Evaluating a prediction system for snow management

The evaluation of snowpack models capable of accounting for snow management in ski resorts is a major step towards acceptance of such models in supporting the daily decision-making process of snow production managers. In the framework of the EU Horizon 2020 (H2020) project PROSNOW, a service to enable real-time optimization of grooming and snow-making in ski resorts was developed. We applied snow management strategies integrated in the snowpack simulations of AMUNDSEN, Crocus, and SNOWPACK–Alpine3D for nine PROSNOW ski resorts located in the European Alps. We assessed the performance of the snow simulations for five winter seasons (2015–2020) using both ground-based data (GNSS-measured snow depth) and spaceborne snow maps (Copernicus Sentinel-2). Particular attention has been devoted to characterizing the spatial performance of the simulated piste snow management at a resolution of 10 m. The simulated results showed a high overall accuracy of more than 80 % for snow-covered areas compared to the Sentinel-2 data. Moreover, the correlation to the ground observation data was high. Potential sources for local differences in the snow depth between the simulations and the measurements are mainly the impact of snow redistribution by skiers; compensation of uneven terrain when grooming; or spontaneous local adaptions of the snow management, which were not reflected in the simulations. Subdividing each individual ski resort into differently sized ski resort reference units (SRUs) based on topography showed a slight decrease in mean deviation. Although this work shows plausible and robust results on the ski slope scale by all three snowpack models, the accuracy of the results is mainly dependent on the detailed representation of the real-world snow management practices in the models. As snow management assessment and prediction systems get integrated into the workflow of resort managers, the formulation of snow management can be refined in the future.