Longer season, better business

The ski season last winter, which was almost one month longer than the year before, has put a lot of cash into the accounts of the companies in the mountain resorts – hotels, villas, equipment and ski rental centres, and providers of other related services.

On the other hand, ski resorts this year saw more foreign tourists.

“This season, about 10% of the total tourists in the mountain resorts were foreign, compared with 7% last year. Most tourists came from Israel, with Brits, Italians and Germans ranking next. Anyway, the number of British tourists has increased a great deal,” Constantin Pop, the head of the tourism promotion office in Predeal said.

The business of the ski resorts is directly dependent on the temperature and the amount of snow on the slopes. The main ski resorts are Predeal, Poiana Brasov, Azuga and Sinaia.

Albeit weather forecasts had announced little snow for the winter, thus alarming the business people on Valea Prahovei, things were the other way round in the end, with the season starting much sooner and ending later than the year before. ZF