Winter is playing games with us this season. In november the first big snowfall came and it was a lot. And then came the rain. Before christmas the snow was almost totally gone and it have continued like that the last couple of months.
On the 23rd of April the ski resort Will close for the season. Last year it closed on the 8th of April. Not because of lack of snow but because of lack of skiguests. In 2016 the Easter was early and Easter sets the end of the skiseason in Norway. During Easter the skiresorts fill up a last time before it slips into the rather depressing month of May, a month inbetween winter and summer. Because here the spring never really bloom.
But at the moment it seems like summer is still far away. We have had a couple of days with snowstorm and closed roads the last week and we are now back to plusdegrees. Should we blame it on the global warming? It is a bad sign for skidestinations?
Even if it have been a really bad winterseason weather wise we have increesed then number of overnightguests. Both international and Norwegian. The DMO here are putting a lot of resources in marketing and gathering the destination on both national and international level. Right in line with the national DMO, Visit Norways head strategy (that from my point is maybe not only positive for the country and the so called tourist industry. More about that in another post). Will Norway be able to handle this inceasing interest? Last summer many hiking spots around Norway and their communities had their best, but maybe also their worst season so far.
With that said it must be underlined that the people within the tourism industry here in Geilo is working hard with a lot of dedication and it will be very interesting to see where their work will lead. Because we are obviously not the only company in this mountain village that is experiencing a steady upswing.
