Zermatt (Valais,
Switzerland) can be included in the selected group of the international
destination resorts that attract skiers from all over the world. Zermatt
is a car-free resort and mountain village at the foot of the
Matterhorn, surrounded by an incredible landscape of mountains and
glaciers.
Zermatt Bergbahnen,
the largest aerial cableway company in Switzerland, understands
nowadays the challenges for the ski resorts are gaining competitive
advantage by being environmentally friendly and offering a quality
service. On completion of a multistage auditing process carried out over
a period of around one and a half years, the staff of Zermatt
Bergbahnen have been granted on September 25, 2005, ISO-9001 Quality
management certification and ISO-14001 Environment management
certification for all enterprise areas of activity.
Also, ski resorts have been forced to invest and innovate to remain competitive; new ski lifts, snow making machines, cultural, sports and entertainment facilities and refurbished buildings are some of the necessary measures employed to render resorts more attractive. Since 2002, Zermatt Bergbahnen AG has invested CHF 105 million in transport equipment, CHF 39 million in pistes and artificial snow equipment, and CHF 34 million in property and vehicles.
On September 2007 Zermatt Bergbahnen AG reported figures substantially ahead of those reported five years ago at the time of the merger. The relatively warm winter seen again in 2006/07, with scant natural snowfall, proved the CHF 40 million in capital expenditures for artificial snow equipment to be a wise investment. An armada of over 700 lances and snow machines made it possible to open over 100 km of top-quality slopes in early December. The Matterhorn ski paradise posted record attendance for the period between Christmas and New Year's, with an additional 2,000 to 5,000 guests per day and 15,045 daily passes sold on the peak day of New Year's Eve 2006.
Matterhorn ski paradise daily pass sales for the last winter were up by 42,940 year-on-year (3.2%) to 1,368,920, and seasonal pass sales by 733,470 (7.3%) to 10,671,230. For the full-year, sales totalled 1.8 million daily passes and 12,956,230 seasonal passes. With over 2 million skiing days, the Matterhorn ski paradise is one of the largest contiguous ski areas in the world.
