Aiming Low To Earn High

Investors in overseas property may have felt somewhat negative about the prospects for Alpine ski resorts after last winter. The unusually mild season left many resorts despairing as slopes that would normally be filled with skiers were brown, muddy wastelands with barely a flake of snow.

The bad winter suffered by resorts, particularly those at lower levels, led many to wonder what future there was in a world beset by global warming. Earlier this week Deutsche Welle reported that The Swiss ski area of Bernese Oberland expects to lose around €40 million (£29 million) a year due to a 1.8 per cent temperature rise by 2030 as the snow cover lessens. At first glance, it may seem unwise to invest in ski property, with the prospect that nobody wants to rent it because there isn't enough snow.

Yet there are many advantages to being lower down, Ski property broker Free Spirit International has suggested. Director Andrew Beale said the key was that higher resorts did not have a summer season and investors should consider the potential benefits to tourists who don't just visit for the winter sports.

He stated: "You will find that a lot of resorts, slightly lower down - for example, resorts like Chamonix - are busier during the summer than they are in the winter, because it is a centre for mountain biking, walking, climbing and other summer pursuits."

"You don't necessarily look high for an all round rental vehicle; you look at a resort which has a summer season and a good summer season, as well as a winter season," he added.

This, of course, is a form of diversification which may form an increasing part of the future tourism scene in the Alps if global warming does its worst and ensures the only ski slopes are dry ones. Such adjustment has already taken place closer to home. In Scotland the Nevis Range resort, apart from keeping its cable cars running in the summer to give Munro-baggers a head start up Aonach Mor, also has a world championship mountain biking track. Plans are afoot to do the same at Glen Shee in the Cairngorms.

In a press release today the Association of British Travel Insurers noted that the 3.5 million Britons heading overseas for the Christmas and New Year season included many who were off to the Alps, where this year's early snowfall has been good. Some, of course, may see last year as a blip. Others are still sceptical about global warming in any case. But for Mr Beale, the possible threat has not stopped the investors coming forth.

"We have noticed no diminishing demand," he said. "In fact, we are busier than ever."

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