Research, research, research

Does it all sound a bit easy so far?
It wasn't quite so simple, it wasn't just a question of where I could afford to set up - I spent weeks and weeks researching the area, the ski holiday market, the summer mountain holiday market - I don't want a business that I can only run for 16 weeks of the year, after all.

Then there is the question of transport - I won't go into it now as I don't want to bore you to tears but the airline industry is sooooo complicated and it is near impossible to get a straight answer from anyone, unless of course you want to give them a big wad of cash!

But if you are interested in some market research:

The ski industry report 2007
http://emag.digitalpc.co.uk/welcome/sir/sir-11-07-2006.asp

The Ski Club of Great Britain Snowsports Analysis
https://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/presscentre/snowsportsanalysis.asp

Mintel's Snowsport Report 2006
http://www.mintel.com/docs/trade_abta_snowsports.htm

That should be enough reading for now. I just wanted to show that it is important to have a good idea who your market is and whether there will be enough customers to go around!

My next problem is pesky global warming - this depends on who you are listening to. the doom sayers predict that we will not be able to ski in low resorts in a few years while the more optimistic are pointing out that gulf stream is changing and the next ice age is on the way!
This is the problem - no one can predict what will happen, however, I did think it was important to be somewhere where there are alternative activites, just in case.

As it is, we have golf, horse-riding, mountain - biking, kayaking, hunting, all sorts of other sports are developing around Bansko so that helped my descision.

Anyway I must go and tidy up the website, I have been neglecting it recently in an effort to get my Bulgarian ID cards... but i'll get to that headache later.

www.christopherchalets.co.uk