Where to Ski And Snowboard -

Corporate ski trips

10th November 2011, by Dave Watts

Take the team away to bond

The market for corporate ski trips used to be big. A few seasons ago we had 13 advertisers in this chapter. Now we have one. Obviously, in difficult economic times, companies cut back on expenditure; and corporate hospitality is an easy target. It is still happening, but companies aren’t spending as much and there aren’t as many ‘jollies’ where staff and clients just go away to bond and enjoy themselves.

Amin Momen of Momentum Ski, which does a lot of corporate business, says, ‘Business dropped in winter 2009 but recovered significantly over the next two years, and 2012 looks like being even better. One thing that is very noticeable is that firms that used to organise a trip purely for bonding purposes are now making them more business-focused, incorporating meetings and forums into the programme. For example, each year Lambert Smith Hampton runs a three-day corporate trip to Courmayeur for around 250 people in the commercial property industry; but now it includes an invitation-only forum that takes place before the ski day (Seb Coe spoke at it last year).

And in 2011 we organised a four day Reproductive Medicine Symposium for 50 to 60 doctors in Crans-Montana, with post-skiing seminars from 5pm to 8pm; in 2012 they are going to Courmayeur. Every year, Ford runs a trip linked to the Geneva Motor Show – it invites motoring journalists to the show and then to test drive cars by driving them to and from the Alps, and maybe try 4x4s out on an ice-driving circuit.’

Mountain Heaven is a company that has catered chalets and self catering accommodation in four French resorts and in Grimentz in Switzerland. Nick Williams, its MD, says, ‘For the last three winters we’ve pioneered a new concept of great-value corporate trips. A firm of management consultants takes over all our self-catered accommodation in La Plagne Montalbert for its staff.

They arrive from all over – the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, USA – and we organise transfers from whatever airport suits them or from Aime railway station. They hold a two-day conference in Montalbert’s own conference centre midweek but are free to arrive early or leave late to enjoy time on the slopes – they have the apartments for the whole week. We also deliver breakfast each day and organise lunches and dinners – including a dinner up the mountain.’

Roger Walker of Ski 2 (a company that specialises in Champoluc in the Monterosa area of the Italian Alps) says, ‘Our corporate clients tend to be different from those of other companies. Most are very budget conscious, nearly all want to go out over a weekend, and the whole thing is based more on internal team bonding than on entertaining clients. Most don’t want us to organise meeting facilities for them either – so we are going against the trend of cutting down on “jollies”.

But with some of the companies, the staff contribute to the cost – they may pay for the accommodation themselves while the company arranges the flights, picks up the tab for wine with dinner, or pays for lift passes, ski rental and lessons, for example. We’ll pick guests up from any of six airports within striking distance – companies like the flexibility we offer.’

How to organise it and where to go

Organising the whole thing yourself is a real hassle. People based in different areas of the country are likely to want to fly from different airports and at different times of day. And many hotels in the Alps don’t want to take bookings for just a few days, or to provide the number of single rooms that you might want. Numbers are likely to change as people drop out for various reasons. Your group is likely to have skiers and boarders of widely differing ability and maybe some complete beginners or non-skiers, so you need to organise ski instructors or guides to teach or lead different groups. You need to organise equipment (and maybe clothing) rental and lift passes.

You might want to organise ‘jollies’ such as dinner up the mountain and a torchlit descent back or a lunchtime BBQ on the piste, or a ‘treasure hunt’ event for teams on the slopes. And you might need rooms to hold business meetings in.

But that’s what you use a tour operator or event organiser for – to deal with all the hassle and organise things on your behalf. And the great thing is that they don’t charge you any extra for doing all that – it’s part of the business to them.

Because corporate trips tend to be short, you’ll want to keep the travel time to the minimum. Transfer times from airports to resorts generally range from one to four hours, and you’ll probably want to operate at the lower end of that range if you can. That’s why resorts such as Courmayeur and Champoluc in Italy (close to Geneva and Turin airports), Engelberg in Switzerland (close to Zürich), Kitzbühel in Austria (close to Salzburg and Innsbruck) and Garmisch in Germany (close to Munich) are popular. All these resorts have hotels that are happy to offer short break bookings too.

City ski championships and momentum ski festival

This season the 13th annual City Ski Championships will be held in Crans-Montana in Switzerland (from 16 to 18 March 2012) rather than Courmayeur in Italy where they have been held until now. Organiser Amin Momen said, ‘It was time for a change and Crans-Montana is a great venue – they have held music festivals and World Championship races and have excellent hotels and first class venues where we can hold parties and prize givings. This year we are running the Momentum Ski Festival the same weekend to attract non-competitors too – there will be five-star entertainment on and off the mountain, including top comedians (Marcus Brigstocke is already confirmed), big name DJs and live bands. There will be up to 500 people out to enjoy it. We have chartered a flight with Snowjet for over 100 people to and from Sion airport (just 45 minutes from the resort), and that was booked up by July. It‘s looking likely that Damon Hill, Heston Blumenthal, Lawrence Dallaglio and Colin Jackson will be among the celebrities there again. Warren Smith will run both performance and pre-race coaching clinics with his team of instructors.’

The Saturday GS race is the main event. But two other races are held on the Friday: the Accenture parallel slalom and the Zai Ski Radar Trap Challenge (speed skiing). On both days there’s a race-side buffet in the Savills Alpine Homes race paddocks. On the Friday evening there’s a Cavendish Ware welcome drinks party, and on the Saturday a Valais reception followed by a gala prize presentation dinner and then ... clubbing until dawn. Sunday is free for skiing.

For more details call 020 7371 9111 or visit www.cityskichampionships.com.

---

---

Back to features