Switzerland Lift Co’s - End Of A Challenging Winter Seaso
Although the 2022/23 winter season fell short of last winter's records for the Swiss cable car companies, it is still within the average for the last five years. This is shown by the final evaluation of the Swiss Cable Cars (SBS) winter season monitoring.
For the winter season monitoring, Seilbahnen Schweiz analyzed the number of guests and the turnover for the passenger transport of 60 members from all over Switzerland during the entire winter season. The final figures for April are now available, so that a summary of the 2022/23 winter season can be drawn. The analysis shows that the cable car companies could not match the success of the last record winter. Across Switzerland, the number of guests (first entries) was 12% lower and the turnover for passenger transport was 9% lower than in the 2021/22 winter season. “The entire winter season was a major challenge for the mountain areas due to the low amount of natural snow and rare periods of good weather.
A regional comparison shows that the decline in the regions with higher-lying snow sports areas was less pronounced. In Valais, for example, 7% and in Graubünden 9% fewer guests were counted than in the previous season, while in Arc jurassien there was a drop of 76%. Ticino stands out positively - the only region in which an increase in first-time entries was recorded (+69%). This could also be due to the fact that it was particularly warm and little snow there last winter.
Winter season corresponds to the 5-year average
Even if the past winter season is behind the result of the previous winter, the 5-year comparison shows that it roughly corresponds to the average. The total number of guests is 1% below the average, while the turnover for passenger transport is 6% higher than the average value. The two largest snow sports cantons in the country can look forward to a result above the 5-year average: the number of guests in Valais was 10% and in Graubünden 2% above the average value of the last five years.
A differentiation according to the size of the cable car companies is also exciting. An analysis of the 5-year average shows that large cable car companies are developing better than smaller ones. While the number of guests increased by 9% for operators with more than 20 million annual sales, it fell by 46% for cable car companies with less than one million annual sales. "Larger companies are better at adapting to a lack of snow or changing guest needs," explains Stoffel. At the same time, he directs his attention to the summer season: “Many cable car companies start their summer operations in the course of May, and cable cars with exclusive summer operations, which lead to scenic mountains, for example, are already open.
