No show at snow
Great Snow – No Queues: Falls Creek is now offering great skiing, fantastic prices and no queues. This combined with the huge range of other activities happening on and off the snow makes for the perfect time to come on up! ~ (from Falls Creek’s website)
I bet they wish someone would “come on up”. This is the first weekend of the school holidays, the resorts have plenty of snow and the prices are at their lowest, as they always are in June, yet for some reason there is hardly anyone at either Falls Creek or Mt Hotham, as the above snow-cam shots clearly demonstrate.
Bright is quiet too. We’ve only got one unit presently occupied, the town is dead and the local service station reports that it has only hired out 4 sets of chains for the weekend. Yet we’re booked out for most of the 7 days commencing next Thursday – i.e. in July.
For some reason people just do not come to the snow in June, regardless of how good it is. It’s crazy, they’re all coming next week to pay top dollar!
Then again, as I’ve said before, the real ski season is very short – about 6 weeks starting early July – and the hype surrounding the ski resorts is only put out to give the impression that it’s very popular. The truth is the amount of interest in skiing is diminishing rapidly - especially in these times of climate change and economic uncertainty - and the resorts are only really about property development.
And, as there is no real tourist demand to support the massive over-developments up there, they have to create the impression that it’s busy and that investors will get a decent return.
It doesn’t bother me though, because Bright is NOT dependent on the snow and anything we get in winter is a bonus. You see, unlike the phony ski resorts, Bright is a genuine year-round destination and I’m surprised there’s not more development down here, because the returns are much more reliable and the property prices are not inflated.
But, as I’ve also said before, what does piss me off is how much State Government assistance the CORRUPT ski resorts and developers receive, while genuine tourist destinations like Bright (where people actually live!) are neglected.
We’re just not greasing the right palms, I guess.
I’m really looking forward to the day it all falls in a heap up on the mountains. It WILL happen.
Wally says: I'm taking y'all to VCAT, Woolies. Go on, git! Git out of 'my town'.
Contact: alpineopinion@gmail.com
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I can explain the no show.
“high end” ski resorts are currently getting flogged by their Jetstar low service rivals like Baw Baw. It’s a world-wide trend.
Skiers are now a very price sensitive breed, and the “high end” resorts do not offer good value for money.
$80+ a ticket for a hopelessly understaffed resort with limited services, and hopelessly inflated F and B prices. I can go to Baw Baw for that at half the price, and take my own lunch.
Cheap flights to NZ also mean skiers head across the Tasman for much better snow at much better prices.
I predict one of the Victorian “high end” resorts is going to go the jet star option very soon.
Well, if either Hotham or Falls go to the budget end of the market it will have a drastic impact on property returns. They’ve just got too many of them up there and all they’ve done is to crap in their own nests.
As Mah Sheila would say “tough titties”.