Slovenian ski resorts turning towards year-round tourism

The Soriška Planina ski resort in northwestern Slovenia, which lies at between 1,300 and 1,500 metres of altitude, is one of many ski resorts that have faced the challenge of winters growing warmer and skiing seasons shorter.

"Even though this winter is much better temperature-wise than the previous one, we did not have enough natural snow to prepare the ski slopes, but the temperatures allowed for the production of artificial snow," head of the Soriška Planina tourism centre Polona Golija told the STA.

In 2023 the ski resort invested nearly EUR 2 million in the system for artificial snow. Without it, the ski resort would have likely closed down, Golija said.

In the last decade the ski resort was open between 75 and 115 days per season, last winter only 65 days, while they are aiming for around 90 this season.

If artificial snowmaking became impossible because of rising temperatures, skiing at Soriška Planina would not be feasible any more, Golija said.

No-snow winters to become more common in low-lying areas

The challenges ski resorts face are not just the result of individual warm winters but part of a wider trend of climate warning, data by the Environment Agency (ARSO) shows.

The year 2024 was the warmest on record in Slovenia, climatologist Gregor Vertačnik said. The average temperature was 1.8 degrees Celsius higher than the 1991-2020 average, which is 0.5 degrees more than in 2023.

Last year also broke temperature records in Europe and at the global level.

In the last 60 years winters in Slovenia got warmer by around 3 degrees Celsius, with the 2023/24 being the warmest winter yet. "The current winter season is also above-average in temperature but it will not be among the warmest," Vertačnik said.

Because of climate change snow cover in the low-lying areas has been halved in the last 20 years compared to the snow cover before 1988. It also decreased by nearly half in Alpine valleys and in the mountains up to the altitude of around 1,500 metres.

The frequency of snowfall will continue to decrease at all altitudes, and especially in low-lying areas winters with little or no snow will become more common.

Year-round tourism important for survival of ski resorts

Ski resorts are becoming more and more dependant on alternative forms of tourism, said researcher Maja Turnšek from the Tourism Faculty at the University of Maribor.

"They are aware of the challenges of climate change so they are developing activities outside the winter season, such as cycling, hiking and scenic chairlift rides," she said.

In 2023 the Ministry of the Economy, Sport and Tourism allocated EUR 55.4 million to transform nine ski resorts into year-round mountain tourism centres. This initiative led to investments totalling EUR 76.5 million to update ski lift infrastructure and develop year-round outdoor activities, Turnšek said.

"The success of these investments has to be monitored in the future as it is the first major national measure of adapting Slovenian tourism to climate change," she said.

The Soriška Planina ski resort has also been undergoing a transformation into a year-round mountain centre in the last decade. The ski resort has been taking part in the international project BeyondSnow, which aims to adopt sustainability measures to increase the resilience of winter tourist destinations in the Alps to climate change. It brings together ski resorts at low and medium altitudes in six Alpine countries.

The practice of artificial snowmaking that requires the use of energy and water can be environmentally problematic in some areas and can contribute to the negative effects on the environment. That is why sustainable alternatives should be developed, said Slovenia's coordinator of the project Jelka Popović Gužvić.

In Slovenia the project activities are focused on the area of Bohinj as a winter skiing hub with two large ski resorts, Vogel and Soriška Planina, and several smaller ones. "In the last 10 to 15 years the share of visitors to Bohinj in the winter months has decreased from around 35% to between 18 and 20% of all visitors," she said.

A strategy is being drafted to adapt Bohinj's tourism to climate change by developing new spring and autumn activities. Furthermore, they are trying to better manage the tourism rush in summer by directing visitors from more busy areas to less visited ones with thematic trails. A digital tool is being developed by Arctur to estimate the vulnerability of destinations to climate change and propose guidelines on how to adapt them.

Transforming winter tourism increases load on already affected areas, especially in summer

While being a sensible measure, transforming winter tourism in mountainous areas into year-round tourism will increase the load on the already affected areas in the busy summer months. The post-pandemic growth of tourism in the Slovenian mountainous areas was almost exclusively due to higher visitor numbers in summer, Turnšek said.

"In addition to the transformation of winter tourism, the summer season will grow longer because of warmer weather and the numbers of visitors going to higher altitudes to stay away from the heat will increase as well," she said.

That is why different measures have to be implemented to develop and promote tourism activities in less busy seasons, to redirect tourists from the most visited areas and to protect the environment, such as measures to prevent the erosion of hiking trails, she added.