Transcript Beitostolen Podcast
Yinke Appeldoorn
Welcome to our podcast “snow business INN Lillehammer”
, where we explore unique
places, smart snow businesses IDs and great experiences. Today we're gonna talk
about Beitostolen in Norway, a beautiful mountain village with a hotel that does a lot
of different things. The main reason why we visit Beitostolen is the unique ownership
model. Beitostolen hotel works with a hybrid system, buildings that balancing what
they own and what they rent out, they carefully pick partners work together and
promote activities and have smart ways to keep their business running all year. We're
gonna talk about it and how we experience that in the place. We're also gonna talk
about the other business model we will see and like the school from Beitostolen and
our experiences from staying there. So let's get started.
Simon Westgarth
What a great introduction. So in the room with me, Simon Westgarth is Bastian
Elbern, Jill van Opstal, Carina Nettelbeck, Yinke Appeldoorn, Geoffrey Fritz. And as
you heard in our fabulous introduction, we recently went to Beitostolen a mountain
village, which is about two and a half hours north west from
Lillehammer over to mountain passes and up along valley that we finally arrived in
Beitostolen, which is principally a small resort that has ribbon development where
there's a main center and all the main services are along this main road and then
accommodation is to the north of the road in terms of a warm bed apartments and to
the south, lots and lots of cabins as well. What else do we see when we were there?
When we first got there, what was your impressions?
Bastian Elbern
So when we first got there, it was like a really small town with a lot of different
supermarkets to do so that this probably down to there being a lot of self-catering
apartments there in the hotels and cabins as well. We seen a lot of different activities
centers along the road, along the main road. There hasn't not been that much off the
road basically. So along the main road there were most of the things and everything
was in very walkable distances and not far from each other and directly at the end of
the slopes basically.
Simon Westgarth
Yeah, you pinpointed a key advantage what they have is if things walkable distance,
which is great for people who are there in the winter, walking in their ski boots and
they like, but however, in the summer, if they don't stop, they've missed it, as the
sense that you drive by and you blink and it's gone. What was your first impression
when you got there?
Jill van Opstal
It felled like I was on a camping, because there are little houses and you have like
the supermarket, you have the ski lift, and you could just walk there. So for me, it was
just like a little camping trip.
Carina Nettelbeck
For me, it was like, it's a little tiny ski destination area and it reminds me of the
German ski hill called Winterberg, because the slopes are only like the lifts are
going 200 meters up and then directly down, so yeah like for beginners actually.
Simon Westgarth
Very much leverage for beginners and families to go there, learn to ski. So that's that
main focus. It's all walkable distance and it's just there you can do it. What were your
first impressions?
Yinke Appeldoorn
For me it felt like a small village. Also, the architecture made it look like a small
village, but everything was nearby. I also liked the supermarket and the activities you
can do after skiing. Just normal activities, go into a bar for example. So I felt like I
was in a small village there.
Simon Westgarth
I mean, the year-round population and residents who live there is really small and
before they had skiing here, it was exceptionally small, little commune, but at least, I
mean, those numbers have gone up considerably at people who live their year-round
now simply because it is a year-round destination.
Geoffrey Fritz
I think it also felt very nice that everything was very walkable along the road and you
had basically everything you need. You can buy the groceries, you can do leisure
activities, also indoors when there is not a good weather outside and also the ski
slope was just directly in front of the accommodation, so that was a big plus and also
they had like a ski shuffle bus to get to a more advanced area for advanced skiers.
Simon Westgarth
But who are the people coming there? What kind of market are they coming from?
Geoffrey Fritz
I think it was cater towards families, because of all the activities and also like the
beginners slopes, directly at the resorts.
Bastian Elbern
It was also mainly for families from the Nordic countries for example at Norwegian
population and huge Danish tourists and Swedish tourists, but recently they have
also opened up the market, especially with the accessibility from the airport in Oslo to
people from abroad, so for example, Germans, Dutch people, and people from the
UK. But there was still said that especially from northern Germany and from the
Netherlands, they came by car because the difficulty is with the airport being in Oslo,
you need to still drive 2 and a half hours to three hours to get to Beitostolen and
people who can fly there is they are reliant on either renting a car or taking a bus,
which goes to Oslo, though, which is not happening very regularly. They said they
had the train line once, but it has been abandoned for several years, so there's no
train to Beitostolen and people don't like bus travel, basically. If you go on holiday,
you with your luggage and your everything skiing equipment may be basically not
that much by families that are beginners or one to have their kids learn skiing, they
don't
necessarily have that much skiing equipment already, but still you have a lot of
luggage for the small family. You don't want to put that into a bus.
Simon Westgarth
I mean but surely there will be people who would tolerate that where there is
value in what they've been offered from a for example, a tour operator.
Bastian Elbern
Yes absolutely and there has been an increase in usage of tour operators as well. So
it's only sees positive development.
Simon Westgarth
Yeah, I recall them mentioning they used to like a crystal, which is uh UK-based
complete tour operator, they sell packages and no doubt when if they do that, they
offer a chartered bus from the airport to Beitostolen and back again. And how do you
think they would market that to those kinds of tourists?
Yinke Appeldoorn
It’s easy.
Carina Nettelbeck
It's easy, like when you imagine you were living in the UK, you need the flight, you
have to book separately and then the transportation to come to Beitostolen and then
you have to book like the hotel, apartment, cabin and then as well, like all the
restaurants, activities and when you have a tour operator, which offers like a whole
package from transportation to go there, and the train tickets and also the plane
tickets, bus and so on. And as well for accommodations, ski school and everything,
that makes it really, really easy for the tourists who want to come there.
Simon Westgarth
Yeah, I think that Beitostolen leveraged their location ease of movement to
everything around in the destination and the fact that there are three supermarkets
for what is a village, which is pretty unusual and therefore, if you're staying in an
apartment, because you've flown in, and you can get all your essentials you know. I
mean, when we went to Hafjell they certainly weren't working on this market.
Carina Nettelbeck
Yeah, like in Hafjell it's like a different kind of system than in Beitostolen. In
Beitostolen it’s more like family based and they have this hybrid system, so they work
together, they have one leader, which where the Radisson blue hotel is also inside
and then the rest is like connected to it and they are all working together.
Simon Westgarth
So between you, tell me more about what this hybrid system is.
Jill van Opstal
They are partners. So the resort, the Radisson blue, it's like the main character there.
They own the land and like the buildings that are on the land, and they find people,
they love to work with, good people, and they say, if you want your own business,
you can do it, it is your expertise. And they work together and
they help to build like their own business.
Simon Westgarth
So it's somewhat different to what we saw um Hafjell, which is like more a corporate
model, whether corporate corporation owns everything on the mountain and then
they would rent out a restaurant to a restaurant service and a proportion of the
turnover also goes back to the corporation. So that's it's a very effective way to
manage a larger gross profit. However it gets more awkward where you have to rely
a lot on seasonal workers, maybe the person who manages the restaurant on the
mountain, finds the year round, probably possibility and you get this higher churn of
staff people that you kind of trained and then they've gone. Where there's this hybrid
model is it's not that common
and it's where the main actor on the mountain, tourism actor, they select
our people they work with, maybe their employees initially and then they see
that they are doing a fantastic job, good service, and then they offer them a
solution, whereby they can stay in the destination and build something, you
know, and I think two of our other people we met from Beito Activ and Barcraft were a
really good example of this happening here. And what this really helps is that the
person in the main actor in the destination can focus on marketing their destination
and getting people to come there and then everyone else with
these partnerships and collaboration, they work on delivering good service and
good product to those people because that's what they're good at rather than
having a over overlord kind of style manager, checking up to make sure they're
turning over enough profit, you know, so they can so they can keep their
business, you know, which is more like a corporate model. Does anything else
you could take away from that kind of that discussion?
Bastian Elbern
It's really interesting that you bring up marketing because we heard that most of the
marketing that they do is actually not really marketing. They don't really spend that
much on marketing, but they rely a lot on most small propaganda by the people they
like to create experiences at level with the CEO, said to us, and rely on people telling
other their friends about the location so that they would come visit and then I'll tell
other friends and this is possible and supported by this highly integrated model of the
hybrid model, because they are working so well together and they integrated so
much that you could ask for a if you buy a ski pass, you could ask, yeah, in the
afternoon when the ski lifts are closed, what can I do? And then they would know
what is open at the moment and they would advise you to go to this bar for from
Barcraft or you
can do this relaxation thing on the other thing, or you have maybe another
activity by Beito Activ that is going on on the afternoon. So this is really a good
example of how they keep their customers. They are very fond of keeping the
customers that they have and attract the further ones who are using their original
customers.
Simon Westgarth
Yeah, of course, it is very easy to upsell to people that are engaged and they're
enjoying the product. And that was very evident and they kind of got a sense they're
working for each other a little bit, yeah, helping each other promoting different things
advising and offering great service. I mean, how was the CEO of Beito resources Atle
Hovi? So I mean, you all got to see the Atle Hovi show? How was that?
Yinke Appeldoorn
It was funny how he introduced himself. He did some magic tricks as well, that that's
makes it very interesting and also like, the focus were was immediately on because
he did something instead of saying first the out point, but he just make a good
atmosphere. And yeah, you just talk about Beitostolen and also
about the marketing. He said about that's the best way to marketing is true PR and
he said, like, if you do things you get in in the PR. You get some PR, some journalists
and that's actually free. It was interesting to hear this story how you get some free
marketing if you do this.
Simon Westgarth
I mean, he use a simple like example of the the pink chair on one lift, which
represented the his mother, uh one of her aged birthdays and there was the pink
chair to celebrate her reaching a grand old age, and then and yet somehow that was
easy PR and to the point that people see it, it's unusual. People see it and it's
something they want in a story. And it goes on and on and on. As a result of this very
simple inexpensive PR.
Bastian Elbern
Also goes along a quite nicely with what he told us for the history of the resort that he
basically he was made popular by a fund raise of where people are going down the
mountain on skis and then going over a top of uh of water in the spring and they
hope to cross this puddle in this an extended puddle to so to say, but they're going
with their skis over the water and see who go goes the furthest. And that was just like
a fun thing that it happened to be invited to Beitostolen and that made people talk
and think about Beitostolen as a ski destination and this is very interesting and very
clever marketing for me because it doesn't cost that much. It brings people to want to
raise in this competition for what and and visitors to to the competition because they
will something unusual and this is in a way also a very good summary of the whole
approach from Beitostolen resort to this uh marketing thing.
Simon Westgarth
So there's some kind of slush cup, you know, when the late towards the end of the
ski season, they'd dig up basically a little long strip with the water in it and have
people try to ski across the water but come downhill, skip across the water, creates a
lot of entertainment because there's a lot of wipeouts, but people are falling in the
water, so and it just produces a good atmosphere and a close out on the season. But
equally, in terms of marketing, Beitostolen, they desperately try to have some kind of
Nordic ski race early on in the season that will definitely be televised so people in can
see that Beitostolen has snow. They're able to offer races, and it's a place in Norway
to go and they they have it early, which is almost preseason, you know, and yet they
get lots of free marketing by being the first to be seen on television, getting results
from a Biatlon race or a ski race, a Nordic ski race at Beitostolen early season. Again,
leveraging the destination but by being the first in the season and having their
iconography on display so people remember it. So in the Beitostolen used the
Pitahhorn Mountain, which is the gateway from the southwest into the Jontheimen
National Park, which is an iconic image for for people who know the national parks
here in Norway. Anything else from the history and the Atle Hovi show?
Carina Nettelbeck
what I found really interesting was that he said that he
wanted differentiate from matters and in Easter, for example, he offers a
race so that the hotel guests can compete in a slom against him. And when
they beat him, he will pay them the whole trip and the staying
overnight. but he said, that only one person could beat him and he was a racer
before. So it's really hard for the tourists to beat him, but it's like also a good
marketing strategy because people know that
they could try to raise against them and but actually, they do not have a lot of
chances to work.
Simon Westgarth
I mean they've already sung the costs they' there. You know,
you think about it that they've already spent their money and they're gonna try
and get it back. you know, it's a risk, it's a gamble, you know, yeah, but they've
got nothing to lose because they've already spent their money. So it's actually I get
another grey pretty much for nothing. Marketing broy
Bastian Elbern
he said to us is the most important thing is to be unique that this aligns with
perfectly well with his whole personality, he is very a unique character and he
very engaging with the the confidation, but uh this also takes on uh even in the
into the business business decisions of the the company because they are
always trying to do some innovations, to keep people coming back because
he said to us if if it's the same resort over and over again for many years,
people have no reason to com back. he wants to build something new for a for
them to experience.
And this, uh so this uniquequeness is also a basically
getting into the business strategy of being a an early adopter of a certain
technologies that are maybe maybe not so well known in Norway in other
results.
Jill van Opstal
he told us that he wants to build something a new activity every year.
So every year, there's something new to experience.
Geoffrey Fritz
I also he focuses on market research in, like globally. So uh he looks at, for example,
what uh ski
resorts in North America do or uh ski resorts in Asia, and maybe they have
some activities that are not popular in Norway right now and he adopts them
and then he created the USP for the people to go there, uh like, for example,
with the snow rafting, I think that is pretty unique uh for Norway. and uh but uh
this was uh done already in uh in other countries, but not in no way.
Simon Westgarth
Yeah, a few years back they had a viral hit with a video of a yeah, snow rafting,
which is um they use old rafts and beito aktiv
they be able to track put the people in the raft and off they go down
fixed track so they can't slide out of it. And so it's it was definitely a
for people who are not into winter sports, such as skiing crosscountry
snowboarding, which of course, Beitostølen
winter sports. And I think a few of you tried tried a sum, didn't you?
Bastian Elbern
Yeah,we were in to boldering for example, it was a very nice experience,
I would be a child I mean, I already loved it, but then as as a child, it would be
amazing. Like it's it's a rative short track. For us, it took like maybe one and a
half minutes to go down there. but it was a very nice and uh with these kind of
sleds, um to go down the mountain as in a pre built the track, it was a very cool
experience.
Simon Westgarth
Yeah, so it's just classic they use them like an old button lift and
then you just literally hook that onto your sled, drags you up the hill and have a
premade track where people go down and it's right next to the piece, so if
you're a nonskier, you can go up and you maybe your friends who your skiers
are at the top, you can chat with them or more fun I can imagine you guys who
race down with each other.
All: was fun.
Exactly, and this this kind of product is an example very few other destinations annoy
offer that. They focus heavily on the winter sport product and not things for non winter
sport people to do.
Bastian Elbern
What I also like, especially what we were told that with the beito aktiv
also have opportunities for people with, for example, uh who
cannot
so I really like this inclusive approach on the building
everybody. whether you like winter sports or not, whether you did this
Simon Westgarth
And you saw adaptive skiing on the mountain?
Bastian Elbern
Yes
Simon Westgarth
chair, Sorry, the chair lift and it make it really easy
that they they trying to become according to beito aktiv
where you can run all inclusive ski for people who are um disabled
that moves us nicely into beito aktiv And what do we find out about then?
Geoffrey Frit
beito aktiv
is a company that runs activities uh in bit stolen and uhespecially the ski school. uh
where they get their most turnover from.and
they focus on uh some activities such as uh guiding hikes, um this
leads me to uh what is like the region of bore most famous for in summer,which is
the Bzegenheike. It's a
hike in the national park nearby. and they are also do um other activities.
Bastian Elbern
Yeah, that's
answer to this uh rubber tire tourism because people don't need to pay for
for what going to the Bzegenheike
don't want to have a guide, They can just go there. But they would like to grab them
in especially in the summer from basically tourists that are road tripping, going down
the road, maybe looking for a place to stay and then
important for them to also have some activities in the summer for the touriststhat are
just coming by.
Simon Westgarth
Yeah, I mean, the main road north from Beitostøven is is
Valdesa
It's one of the national roads of Norway, and then it goes right past
Yendesheim, where the which is the trail hat, where you take a boat halfwayalong the
lake and then you hide back
Baseen, which is one of the iconichikes of of
yottenheim, where lots of people day hike, where lots of peoplewould do. And
Beitostøven i
a almo
stay in beitostøven and go up, do that hike, and then they stay on the way back
they're tired. simple as that, and this is a huge part of their summer market and then
they beito aktiv, they can do guided hiking, of course, some mountain biking all this
kind of stuff.
Yinke Appeldoorn
So they
do an activity, they um very um smart out, uh, like, for example, where families
has activity they plant at 4 PM afterwards they are done children are hungry
and they offer other opportunities to go eat somewhere, uh, what also is
owned by them.
Simon Westgarth
Yeah, they have a there's some product they offer all summer.
They have an afternoon activity. I think it's more like 3 o'clock it starts. last one
hour, maybe one hour and a half, and you think about it, you on a day you run
activity as towards the end of the afternoon, and when people are finished,
they're probably not gonna drive away. They're probably gonna stay, or at least eat,
you know, before they drive away. And so what this allows them to do is
they can easily then up sell something else in the resort for people to do.
Whereas if you offered the activity 10 in the morning, finish at lunchtime,
people would maybe they take lunch when they'd be gone and you would lose
them. So at the timing is always always like to ask in the lecture where what
time do you think they do their summer activity and everybody thinks oh it must be in
the morning but it's not it's very clever that they do it late afternoon and you will ask
them why do you do it? Most people got hiking in and day and they want to do
something else in the afternoon. And this is perfect. But also what it's really about is
to be able to up straight away when people they're not going
to leave, get in the car and drive three hours back to Oslo or to the airport, for
example.
Carina Nettelbeck
beito aktiv and ski school has also to deal with some challenges,
especially from the weather. We also experi experience the a little bit because
we went there when it was really windy and also snow snowing and rainy. So,
for them, it's like difficult to find activities which you can also do during bad
weather, but for that, it's like really nice that they have the partnership with barcrafd
so they can offer, like stars, bill yards, or also like bowling
kind of stuff. But this is for beito aktiv actually a challenge to cover all
activities outside and also inside so that all the tourists can do something when they
are there, and there are also like to find highly skilled personal, is also a
challenge for everyone in this kind of business, because normally these are
seasonal workers. um so they have to offer them, for example, like
aommendations or more money or like benefits. And for that, for example, when
they there are internationally approved education, so when someone wants to
become a ski instructor, for example, and they do it with the beitostølen ski
school, and they can also work in other countries around the world.
Simon Westgarth
Yeah, the DNS and the Norwegian ski Federation structure Federation, they
recognize a whole different ball in the structure program of different levels, and these
are all comprehendible within the international ski instructctor Federation. And so
they often have a December product there for teaching skiing and then between
winter holidays and Easter, there will have more instructor program, which is, of
course, this is the shoulder season. And you alluded to one of the things about
beitostølen You said 900 meters above sea level, so it's definitely more snow shore.
but what that really means is above the tree line. OK, and therefore it is quite
exposed if there is strong winds from from the south or the west. So you have this
balance so yeah, the constraints yes, we guarantee no fantastic. However, that the
weather's not very helpful, they have other challenges with that. Yeah because of the
wind Yeah, well, when we arrived,the lifts were not running. Yeah, yeah.
the
corporate actor, which is arguably you would say, is a beito resorts, of
course, they charge a land rent. But what I find interesting is that they own a
percentage of the company, so in a many ways you get the expertise from Ad la
and bite stolen resource as part of your organization, but they don't
own 51% a commanding majority, and therefore they're like an advisor, they're
helpful, and so you've definitely got a partner to work with to help you grow.
And this is part in my view of the successor beitostølen in that the main businessfor
beito resort is to get people there and the partners are to provide theservices and the
product for when people are there, OK
And in that way, Imean, corporate actors may turn around and go, yeah,
, but he gives themaway all his gross profit. However,
developing something different wherethey're everyone has
ownership in the outcome and they can all
benefit from it rather than seasonal workers getting paid close to minimumwage and
then the season's done,
gone, you know, and you get thischurn and seasonality.
And then the season's done, they're gone, you know, and you get this churn of
seasonality. So in BarCraft, what was that about, where we went?
Yinke Appeldoorn
Well, BarCraft is a place that serves a place where you can hang out and where you
be there with friends and get experience. They talk about like people, they don't want
to do an activity where they're not experienced. So they have like multiple games in
there where you can do and they are very innovative.
I did some, how do you say?
Bastian Elbern
Darts.
Yinke Appeldoorn
Yeah. And it was like with AI, so you didn't have to count it anymore, but it was count
and there was also a different option to play the game.
Simon Westgarth
So we went to the bar called Spiel, wasn't it? It basically means play.
Bastian Elbern
BarCraft is basically the overall, because they, I don't remember, I have two or three
bars that they own in Beiderstorm.
Simon Westgarth
One more. One more, seven. Nine.
Anyway, it's more than one, that's for sure. And they started with one, but they have
several establishments, including restaurant, cafe and bar. So you guys went to a
pub quiz in one bar.
Bastian Elbern
Exactly.
Simon Westgarth
Which completely filled out the bar and thankfully my team won. But we went to one
bar on the first night we were there and it was the original bar where BarCraft started
and then they have several other kind of drink and food establishments around the
resort. And then where we visited on the second day, there's a place called Spiel,
which we heard about that has a bunch of different, almost like classical pub games
in the establishment.
Bastian Elbern
But they're kind of in a modern style. So they had not like traditional bowling, but they
had something called kick pin bowling, which is a slight twist with the bowling balls
didn't have like the traditional three holes for your hands to be in. It was like just a
football ball, but then smaller with a little bit of throw then.
Simon Westgarth
I guess you got these kind of like pubified activities that don't need much floor space.
Jill van Opstal
And also that you don't have to change. So you just go, you pick up the ball and you
go, you don't have to change your shoes, you don't have to be on the track. So it's
easy for everyone to just go and start the game.
And it's also for like the mini golf they had for like the darts. And they had another
game, but I don't know.
Bastian Elbern
Shovel board.
Jill van Opstal
Shovel board. Yeah.
Bastian Elbern
And they also, they are still looking for activities that happen to expand. And Sala, I
think they've talked about implementing something else there as well.
Jill van Opstal
Karaoke bars.
Bastian Elbern
Karaoke and some other media rooms for broadcasting international football games,
for example.
Geoffrey Fritz
In the past, there was a restaurant, but that didn't quite work out. They got funding
from Vitastone because they saw there is a need for indoor activities as well. So with
the help of Vitastone Resort, they could open this place.
Simon Westgarth
Yeah, they had another partner, which was Pepe's Pizza from across the road. So it
used to be a restaurant. And they, I think the main corporate actor, Vitastone Resort,
they helped fund the refurbishment.
And then, and then Barcraft therefore runs the whole product there. And they're
hoping to be able to, oh yeah, you can just order pizza from over the road and get
delivered. And it's that classic case where, you know, if you have savory food while
you're playing a game, you're more likely to buy more beer, play more games.
And so within that traditional pub idea, but equally, what was really interesting is that
it's almost like an urban experience, but on the ski hill. So if the weather was poor,
you had something to do. You didn't have to be able to run back and hide in the hotel
room or go to the apartment and surf the internet.
It was something to do that was collectively where people were, other than, might be
not just your friends and family, might be other people. And you could have a darts
challenge, you could have a bowling challenge, whatever you, you can make of it
what you liked. But the interesting thing was it was entertainment and an immersive
experience that was weather independent.
Bastian Elbern
Yeah. And it also goes along quite nicely with Adler-Hoffi's philosophy of creating
experiences for the customers so that people do not just get out for a drink, but they
also have some fun and experiences while having this drink.
Jill van Opstal
It is also interesting that like every business that is invited to Vilva is not competing,
but they're like all working together as partners. So I think that's also nice.
Simon Westgarth
Amina, you saw that it was relatively new, but as soon as you approached the door,
the whole door was full of flyers of other things going on in the destination. So there
was no doubt that they're collaborating with each other.
Carina Nettelbeck
It seems like a nice little family all together, like a whole kind of family business. And I
think Adler-Hoffi said this as well in his speech or presentation that they want to make
it like family-based and cozy and that they also want to have the employees for the
whole season and not only for the winter, but as well for the summer distinction.
Simon Westgarth
Yeah, they're looking for year-round employment. I mean, the subheading is four
fascinating seasons, trying to sell stuff. So they have spring cross-country skiing.
So once the Val d'Espere road opens into the Jotunheim, they make cross-country
ski tracks even higher up so there's less sun affected. And then all the way into
autumn, they have lots of different, they use a lot of event strategy to fill beds for
weekends. So they would have some kind of music concerts and all this kind of stuff
all the way through mid-August through to the beginning of winter, really.
They tried to do that to make sure that they overcome the seasonality challenges of
different mountain destinations have. So as we head towards the end here, any last
thoughts?
Geoffrey Fritz
Yeah, Beidersohn as a four-season destination does a good job at promoting the off-
season as well and delivers a whole package for the guests where they can get
groceries if they want, can do leisure activities, go on the slope. The marketing
machine is also well-oiled. Therefore, yeah, it's going to be interesting also with
climate change in mind how this resort will develop in the future.
Bastian Elbern
Yeah, I would completely agree to that. It's a well worthwhile resort to keep an eye
on, especially with regards to summer activities because they are talking about
implementing new attractions for people, especially in the summer to get more
people off the main road and make them slow down in Beidersohn and relax a bit.
[Spreker 6]
Also, if you're a family and you want to learn how to ski, I think it's a really good place
to go because you have everything there. You have the easy slopes, you have like
the swimming pool for after skiing, you have for the parents a sauna. So, there's for
everyone something to do.
Jill van Opstal
I mean, yeah, it's definitely a very, very interesting place to see what's going on. I've
been there many, many times and as you said, there was a restaurant where Spiel is
and now it is something different. There used to be a cheese making place on the
main square and it's not there anymore.
So, no doubt it's quite dynamic there. If something doesn't work, they move on to the
next thing.
Yinke Appeldoorn
No, they're very innovative. They have an innovative mind and they just collaborate
very good and I think that's the beauty of it and that keeps them to continue what
they're doing.
Carina Nettelbeck
They also hope that the people are coming back because they have new activities
over the years. So, the tourists can enjoy other things when they come back in the
next year. So, it's not the same.
Simon Westgarth
Yeah, classically, it's always easier to sell to your own customers more than it is to
find new customers. For me, the hybrid model that they run there, what we mean by
that, let's make sure we get some clarity, is within destinations you have this
corporate model which is owned by one main corporate actor that runs all the
marketing and licenses out services where they control the revenue and then you
have this community destination which is often lots of smaller different actors who
contribute to a tourism organisation, a DMO, destination management organisation
and they tend to have lots of innovation out of those but they are very small and often
they're desperate for large investors. Whereas here at Bites the Southern, they've
grown very slowly and by finding the right good partners to work with and moving
forward and having lots of innovation in different product types for different times of
the year, looking for new markets as well as new products.
So, for us as an academic exercise, this is fantastic. So, with that in mind, I'd like to
thank you for joining us today and we will see you on the slopes for the next one.