Friday, October 25, 2002
With some snow already falling in the car parks, CairnGorm Mountain, recently awarded the accolade of "The Most Improved European Ski Resort" by The Good Ski Guide, is getting ready for the new winter sports season. And as part of that preparation, the CairnGorm funicular railway will close from Monday 4th November until Friday, 14th November for routine maintenance and track inspection.
Explained Bob Kinnaird, the company's Chief Executive: "It is a perfectly normal practice at this time of the year to carry out inspections and undertake maintenance work on all uphill lifting equipment in preparation for what we hope will be a bumper season. We have always done this in previous years with tows and chairlifts and, to be honest, nobody noticed because most of them didn't operate in summer."
"What makes it totally different this time is that the funicular has turned CairnGorm Mountain into a year-round visitor attraction and, because of its popularity, we are having to advise potential visitors that we will not be open for almost the first two weeks of November. With the funicular being shut down, The Ptarmigan will also close as will the Ticket Office in the Base Station and even Visitor Services will be closed with staff engaged in preparatory work, including distributing brochures and season tickets, in readiness for the new ski season."
"It doesn’t really make sense for visitors to travel up to the car park and we are advising people that from 4th to 14th November, there will be nothing see at CairnGorm other than our own people getting ready to provide a huge welcome to our ever-increasing groups of skiers and snowboarders. From early enquiries, we know that customers will be flocking for CairnGorm as soon as there is sufficient snow."
Engineers from Doppelmayr, Frei and Gangloff, the Swiss triumvirate that built the railway system and carriages, will be on site to supervise the entire process and carry out the various inspections, after which the company is confident that it will be given the final seal of approval from Her Majesty's Railways Inspectorate to run at a top speed of 10 metres per second with a full complement of 120 skiers per journey.
Since it was first commissioned on 24th December, 2002, the CairnGorm Funicular has completed over 11,000 journeys between the Base Station and The Ptarmigan , with each carriage travelling a total distance in excess of 21,000 kilometres. For comparisons, that distance represents travelling from Aviemore to New York and back TWICE!
Ends
CairnGorm Mountain wins Green Tourism Gold Award Posted Friday, September 20, 2002 by CairnGorm Mountain
Following its recent success in being recognised by the Good Ski Guide as “Europe’s Most Improved Ski Resort”, CairnGorm Mountain has won another major award which it has described as being of “even greater significance”. For the £14.8 million project that was the subject of considerable protracted debate on environmental issues has been awarded a Gold Standard recognition by the Green Tourism Business Scheme for its “excellence in environmental practice”.
The on-site audit covered a variety of environmental management issues, including energy saving, water issues, waste minimisation and disposal, transport, purchasing and communications, as well as the perhaps more obvious wildlife and landscape. To achieve Gold Standard requires an 80% pass overall and, as relatively few Scottish visitor attractions have achieved this standard to date, it is a major achievement by CairnGorm Mountain to have been successful at the first attempt.
The citation from the Green Tourism Business Scheme, which is run in association with VisitScotland, stated “There is considerable commitment from management and staff in implementing the project that is sensitive to the environment and the local community. CairnGorm Mountain would be an excellent champion for sustainable tourism in Scotland and for the Green Tourism Business Scheme.”
Said Bob Kinnaird, Chief Executive of CairnGorm Mountain Ltd.: “This is a major prestigious award which not only recognises that environmental management is a very broad issue that covers all aspects of our operation but also that we have got it right. Our land management schemes for the preservation, protection, monitoring and restoration of wildlife are already well documented but this scheme underlines the fact that we are demonstrating environmental awareness at levels far beyond what may be deemed to be high profile subjects.”
“For example, decisions to purchase from local suppliers to minimise transport pollution or to recycle printer toner cartridges have an environmental impact, and our obvious awareness of how such matters come within the scope of environmental management speaks volumes about what we are seeking to achieve at CairnGorm.”
Commented Hamish Swan, CairnGorm Mountain’s chairman who has guided the project to its completion in the face of often hostile environmental objections: “Over the years, some individuals have been less than complimentary at times about our commitment to the environment, occasionally choosing to cloud the main issues in emotive debate. We have always maintained that the project has/ /has complete environmental integrity and this Award demonstrates our own integrity on the broad environmental spectrum as well as on specific issues.”
“Right from the start, we have tried to underline to our staff at all levels that this is a fragile environment that can only be sustainable if managed properly and have gone to great lengths to communicate that same message to our visitors. This Green Tourism Gold Award shows that we have been successful in achieving our initial objectives and, at a time when much attention is being focused on Green Issues, including Green Tourism, we will, where possible, be acting on suggestions made by the auditor to make CairnGorm Mountain even Greener.”
Included among the recommendations made by the GTBS is the taking of a regular energy audit as well as a suggestion that CairnGorm should have more contact with other GTBS award winners, with a view towards creating joint marketing exercises aimed specifically at the rapidly expanding Green Tourism market. Other GTBS recommendations include a suggestion that the company might consider sponsoring and promoting a major environmental seminar or funding a high-profile environmental organisation such as the John Muir Trust.
Said Andrea Nicholas of GTBS: “It was evident from everyone that we spoke with at CairnGorm that environmental management is something that the company takes very seriously and it has become part of their everyday business life. It showed an overall awareness of how environmental management policies are all inter-related and that was very encouraging. They have gone to considerable lengths to educate their own team via induction courses as well as having lots of highly accessible information available on topics such as site reinstatement and environmental issues.”
“CairnGorm Mountain has also involved the local community wherever possible and this in itself is not only infectious but also potentially beneficial in the longer term with its local spin-off effect.”
Among the activities commented upon by GTBS was the company’s positive response to having a Community Green Project through involving local schoolchildren at present in the largest tree planting exercise carried out at CairnGorm since the 1970’s. That work began in earnest today (20th) when 150 children from several local primary schools in Badenoch and Strathspey were on site, complete with trowels, to plant around 1,000 trees, all species of which are native to the Cairngorm National Nature Reserve. Included among the species being planted by the schoolchildren in the newly designated Coille na Cloinne/The Children’s Forest near to the car park at Coire Cas are Caledonian Scots Pine, Birch, Juniper, Dwarf Birch and Willow, with the last being of particular significance as an actio species for Scottish Natural Heritage in its efforts to encourage insects back to the area, including the Bumblebee.
Said Bob Kinnaird: “Re-creation of the natural tree-line forest and scrub, known technically as Krumholz, is of major significance to the area and, by involving local children in its creation, we hope that they will also take pride in watching it grow. The growth rate at this altitude is very slow so it will probably be their own children, and even their children’s children, who will benefit from this Coille na Cloinne that we are inaugurating today and to which we will add more native trees on an annual basis.”
The schoolchildren involved in the tree-planting came from primary schools in Aviemore, Kingussie, Alvie, Laggan and Grantown.
The Green Tourism Business Scheme is a VisitScotland accredited scheme created to increase environmental awareness by encouraging tourism businesses to reduce their environmental impact, save costs, improve efficiency and increase their marketing potential.
CairnGorm wins Most Improved European Ski Resort award from Consumers' Association Posted Wednesday, September 4, 2002 by CairnGorm Mountain
CairnGorm wins Consumers' Association Ski Guide's Top Award
CairnGorm Mountain was celebrating last night when The Good Ski Guide - effectively the Consumers' Association's Which Report on Ski Resorts globally - awarded the Scottish mountain resort the accolade of being "The Most Improved European Ski Resort". Previous European winners of the Golden Ski Award, which is nominated and voted upon by active impartial skiers on regular visits to a range of resorts globally, include Verbier (in 2000) and Mayerhofen (2001). CairnGorm had to fight off around 200 other European resorts before being given this year’s award which, in reality, is backdated and recognises improvements made during Season 2001/2002.
The Golden Ski Award is likely be presented formally at The Birmingham Ski Show, the UK's leading ski fair, in October but winners are notified in advance to enable them to use the Award logo in their early season promotional materials.
Said Tania Adams, CairnGorm's Sales & Communications Director:
"This is a massive vote of confidence in CairnGorm by the people who matter - namely the skiing consumers whose opinions, collectively and individually, are the most important of all. Over the past season, even before the funicular was opened last December, we have been putting more and more emphasis on customer care and providing visitors to CairnGorm with a quality experience."
"Clearly the new facilities at the Base Station, the new Visitor Centre and The Ptarmigan have been significant factors, as has the improved uphill service provided by the funicular railway, but this is very much an award that recognises improved quality of service and that is totally people-based."
"Everyone involved at CairnGorm has played his or her part in achieving this recognition, as well as the many people in Badenoch and Strathspey who are involved indirectly in making the resort work. This is a massive pre-season boost for CairnGorm and for winter sports services throughout Monarch Country."
"However, this can only be seen as the start for, having been recognised as Europe's Most Improved Ski Resort, we all have a responsibility to live up to those standards and to what will be people's expectations. Providing a quality experience for every visitor, every time that they come here has to be our constant objective."
Said Scott Armstrong, Head of Marketing, The Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board:
"This is great news for the Scottish Highlands, for skiing in Scotland and particularly for CairnGorm Mountain. Coming as it does within hours of the start of the new series of BBC's "Monarch of The Glen", it underlines the quality and breadth of our visitor attractions and scenery. The people at CairnGorm have worked hard to achieve this international award and have to be congratulated on this great achievement."
Commented Bob Kinnaird, Chief Executive of CairnGorm Mountain:
“In some ways, last year was a difficult year for us for the early commissioning period of the funicular was not without its problems and coincided with the peak skiing season at CairnGorm. However, in what was quite a windy winter, the funicular proved its worth in increasing the number of days in which the resort was able to operate an uphill system. In fact, we increased our total skiing days by almost 30% across the season.”
“The other new facilities at the top and bottom of CairnGorm also contributed to the overall improvement but what we hope made the real difference was neither mechanical nor electronic but people-driven. During last year, we put a lot of effort into creating a quality culture among our staff who were encouraged to make every visitor feel welcome. That commitment to offering a high quality of visitor services has cleared paid off and we will be looking to improve it in the coming season.”
The Golden Ski Award has been presented annually by The Good Ski Guide publication since 2000. Winners in other categories for this season are:
Best North American Ski Resort :Aspen, Colorado, USA
Best European Ski Resort:Les Arcs, France
Most Improved North American Ski Resort|:Fernie, B.C., Canada
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