|
Israel
Ski Resort Hermon Opens With Record Breaking Crowd
By
Joel Leyden Mount Hermon is Israel's only ski resort which includes a wide range of ski trails at novice, intermediate, and advanced levels. The Mt. Hermon Israel Ski area has a well groomed beginners area with a step on escalator, two ski chair lifts which run to the 2,236 meter summit of the ski area and one chair which runs to the mid station. There are additional poma lifts on the Zion area (eastern side of the ski area). The Hermon Israel ski resort also offers additional winter family activities such as sledding and Nordic skiing. Those who operate the Hermon Israel ski area live in the nearby picturesque Israel Moshav of Neve Ativ and the friendly Druze town of Majdal Shams. The Israel ski resort has a professional ski school, ski patrol and several restaurants located at either the bottom or peak of the area. At present, the Hermon Israel Ski area does not have a full time, on site public relations department and when asked for immediate comment there was no English speaking representative, as well as no one from the Hermon Israel ski resort management who could provide the Israel News Agency with a few basic facts about the ski area. "Please call back on Sunday, no one is available to speak with you," said a secretary at the Hermon. It
is this long standing arrogant attitude to the Israel public,
Israel media and tourists to Israel which has caused the Mt.
Hermon Israel ski area and the State of Israel to lose millions
of dollars in revenue. A negative attitude which has alienated
many skiers in Israel which has directly resulted in Israelis
taking off for Turkey and Europe where ski vacations and holiday
packages are actually less expensive. There is now talk of an Israeli cooperative venture capital investors group seeking to split the Mt. Hermon ski area into two ski areas, thereby breaking a long standing monopoly and which would provide better, less expensive and safer skiing to the Israel public. The Hermon Israel ski resort is operated quite well. The present general manager, Menachem Baruch, runs the area with an iron clad fist and for the most part keeps things pretty well organized. In comparison to other ski resorts in North America and Europe this ski area on a scale of one to ten would rate about a 5. Security
at the Hermon Israel ski area is second to none, with elite
alpine IDF soldiers patrolling every foot of the mountain and
using sophisticated surveillance equipment to prevent and identify
any border intrusion. The ski area is actually closed when snow
falls or visibility drops in order to add several additional
layers of security to this resort located on the Lebanon and
Syria borders.
The ski school is run by a dedicated and professional woman named Shosh who also operates the ski patrol. The majority of ski instructors come from the nearby Druse village of Magal Champs. They are not professional ski instructors but do receive some training from professional ski instructors from both the States and Europe who live and or visit Israel. The Hermon Israel ski instructors occasionally fly off to Europe to receive a weeks training there one per year. But the critical problem at the Hermon is not quality of the ski instructors but rather that the average skier in Israel cannot afford ski instruction. Prices for a ski lift ticket (50 USD), ski equipment and ski instruction at the Hermon Israel ski resort are as if not more expensive than what one would find in Killington or Stowe, Vermont, Vail or Aspen in Colorado and many fine ski resorts in France, Italy and Switzerland. The only difference is that average citizen in Israel has an income which is about one quarter of those who live in New York, London or Paris. This results in many Israelis barely affording the entrance fee to the Hermon Israel ski area, buying a ski pass (ski lift ticket) and renting equipment. So when it comes to ski instruction, there is no money left and these poor souls venture down the mountain without control. This causes many accidents to both the uninstructed skier and those standing in their way. Many parents will avoid skiing at the Hermon for they do not want an uncontrolled skier barreling into their children. The Hermon Israel Ski patrol should enforce at the Hermon the same rules which apply at other global ski areas. Unsafe skiers should be warned and if their behavior goes unchecked their lift ticket should be taken away. That is the very least that the management of Mount Hermon can do to protect the lives and the health of others skiers in Israel.
Another
area for concern is outdated and unsafe rental equipment. In spite of faulty rental ski equipment, overall maintenance for the Hermon Israel ski resort is quite good. Although the Hermon Israel ski area has no snow making equipment and relies solely on mother nature, the Hermon Israel ski area maintenance crew does an excellent job in grooming the many trails and the Hermon ski patrol performs an excellent job in marking off dangerous areas. The Hermon Israel Ski resort is a good mountain for intermediate and advanced skiers. When there is good snow cover, one can enjoy a wide assortment of well groomed trails. But it is the beginners area which should be of grave concern to both Mt. Hermon management and skiers alike. Most Israelis who visit the Hermon Israel Ski area are just pleased to see and touch some snow. They are provided with well maintained restaurants, snow sledding and a new roller coaster ride which provides some safe excitement. For the last week, the Hermon Israel ski area has enjoyed record breaking crowds, filling up two large parking lots to the max. The lower parking lot is well organized and has shuttle buses constantly running between the car park and main ski area. In summary, Menachem Baruch and his team perform a fine job given the limited resources provided to them. The residents of Neve Ativ live year round on the revenue gained from the short one month to two month ski season. And much of the money they take in goes in for maintenance and government taxes. So
what should a skier in Israel do? This
professional skier's advice is the following. The management of the Hermon Israel Ski area need to stop stating with arrogance: "be happy that we have this ski area for you" and start addressing professional marketing and PR methods which could start increasing revenue for the residents of the Israel Golan. This increased revenue could then go into replacing unsafe ski equipment and hiring full time public relations staff at the Hermon who would be able to embrace skiers, tourists and journalists. What
would it cost the Hermon Israel ski resort to provide journalists
with free access to the ski area to encourage the writing of
positive news stories and badly needed public relations?
That Israelis get turned off and scared by uncontrolled lethal skiers speeding down the slopes like rifle bullets, faulty, outdated and unsafe ski equipment and arrogant attitudes which then lead them to the nearby ski slopes of Europe must be addressed and turned around. Recently, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich came to the Hermon Israel ski resort 48 hours before the mountain was opened for Israelis. The Mt. Hermon ski management opened the Israel mountain just for Roman so that he could ski in private. “We received a call on Thursday lunch time that Abramovich wanted to come up to ski,” said Menachem Baruch, director of the Hermon Ski Site, told The Jewish Chronicle. “So it was an honor to open the site ahead of time for him. He was very pleasant and seemed pleased to have discovered the Hermon. We spoke in English and he told me that he had only found out in the morning that there was skiing in Israel.” That the Hermon Israel Ski area can provide total respect and safety to Abramovich's wallet and not to the thousands of Israel skiers speaks volumes as to their sense of "public relations" and marketing. Yes, we do have one beautiful ski area in Israel. It has spectacular views of Israel, Lebanon and Syria. The Hermon has excellent terrain for skiing and even restaurants on the slopes providing sandwiches, hot chocolate and beer. But for those who operate the Hermon Israel ski area, they need to start respecting the Israelis, the hard core Zionists who spend many hours to trek to this fine mountain - not just their credit cards.
The
author, Joel Leyden, is a licensed and professional ski instructor.
Leyden worked as a professionally certified ski school director
/ PSIA ski instructor in the Northeast of the US for 20 years.
He was a gold medal winning NASTAR ski racer in the US before
making Aliya to Israel. Leyden worked as a ski instructor and
as a ski guide consultant to the Mt. Hermon ski school in Israel
for over 10 years. Leyden is responsible for having created
and co-moderating the Related
Web sites:
Internet
Marketing SEO Professionals ask:
Sponsored
by IsraelPr.com |
