The first Responsible Skiing Conference was held on the 19th October at Earls Court in London alongside the London Ski and Snowboard Show.  Over 90 attendees from 10 countries around the world packed the room to hear some answers to the question “What would Responsible Skiing look like?”

Veronica Tonge from Responsible Skiing kicked off the day with an Introduction to and Business Case for Responsible Skiing.  This really set the scene for the day and the presentations that followed illustrated many of the points raised in her introduction.

ABTA followed with their approach to sustainable tourism demonstrating responsibility in a finite world and how to have thriving destinations.  They highlighted the industry-wide Travelife scheme.

The Ski Club of Great Britain was up next with some fascinating statistics and trends in the UK ski market and an introduction to their Respect the Mountain campaign.

Neilson Active gave an overview why sustainable tourism is a priority for them and the various ways that they go about implementing it throughout their programme.

Eurostar and Snowcarbon combined to discuss the benefits of travelling by train to the mountains but also some of the difficulties for tour operators wanting to integrate train travel into their packages.

Alpe D’Huez presented a case study of implementing ISO 14001 in their lift operations and the benefit that it has brought.

Crystal Ski (TUI) presented clearly why sustainability is core to their business and how they manage their carbon and work with their supply chains to implement change.

The Austrian National Tourist Office explained the Austrian approach to Responsible Skiing and why sustainability is at the heart of Austrian people and destinations.

The conference heard from Whistler how they are putting environmental management into practice on the mountains at Whistler Blackcomb.

The Green Tourism Business Scheme explained their programme and how it has been implemented in ski resorts in Scotland and Sweden.

Exodus – the adventure travel operator – demonstrated how the market for winter holidays can be widened to incorporate a much broader range of people and activities.

The day was concluded by Harold Goodwin of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism – who had ably chaired the conference all day.

Feedback was unanimously positive for the day “very thought provoking”, “really interesting content”, “excellent speakers” and calls for it to be run again next year.

If you missed the conference or want to listen to or view the presentations again – click here.

We’ll be highlighting some of the key points from the speakers over the next few weeks and opening up the debate – join in!