Aotearoa an International Snowsports Destination
A Framework To Move NZSIA Forward Into The Future Of Snowsports
Aotearoa (New Zealand) is the melting pot for our international snow industry as it attracts off-season training, employment and development opportunities for Northern Hemisphere enthusiasts. The recent success of New Zealand on the Olympic stage has been a result of this culture, long term visioning and partnerships with resorts to invest and develop in the facilities we need to produce our own champions. Our athletes start as children and are part of our family of guests that we consider “whanau”.
Aotearoa an International Destination
Relevant Resources
This Webpage is designed to back up the indoor presentation by the NZSIA in Pamporovo.
The info below follows the content of the presentation.
Aotearoa. An International Snowsports destination
Aotearoa (New Zealand) is the melting pot for our international snow industry as it attracts off season training, employment and development opportunities for northern hemisphere enthusiasts.
This has injected a worldwide view, vast capability and innovation into our country.
Aotearoa is already a diverse country with a constant stream of new people choosing to migrate here to live in paradise and become a Kiwi.
We have a culture that is highly independent in its actions, truly transparent but at the same time relatively flat in its hierarchy and collaborative in its thinking.
Our ski industry is no exception.
The recent success of New Zealand on the Olympic stage has been a result of this culture, long term visioning and partnerships with resorts to invest and develop in the facilities we need to produce our own champions.
Our athletes start as children and are part of our family of guests that we consider “whanau”.
These children go through our Snowsports schools, race programmes, free ski and snowboard programmes and feed into Snowsports New Zealand to support at an international level.
This pathway also works for our instructors. Many of our instructors become trainers and either develop in this space or then choose to move to coaching.
Our Olympic coaching team is predominantly made up of instructors that started with the NZSIA and built their foundations.
The Snowsports education sphere in New Zealand is integrated and collaborative.
This workshop will tell the story of how Aotearoa has evolved into an international snowsport destination.
It will include the journey of developing our own world renowned facilities, Olympic coaches and Olympic athletes.
Nau Mai Haere Mai
Lodged 15 July 1973
Originally set up for the advancement of sport in NZ able to obtain not for Profit Status.
Originally voluntary with staff funding the organisation.
It’s fair to say that for a long time we fulfilled objective C and D but have perhaps not had the abilities or resources for B.
Times have changed – Talk about substantial growth , first from training providers bringing in GAP students and in more recent times Chinese students. , Now 12 months a year not just 4 this has given us the ability to look at investment back into our courses our members and the industry .
Investment Back To Members - E-Learning and resourses
Stakeholders –
SSNZ (olympics), NZSIF (retail), NZSIA (instructors), SAANZ (ski areas
Better Engagement and Communication
New Zealand Ski Schools
1. Fundamentals development
2. Development / ISIA Days
Snow Sports New Zealand
1. Development of The coaching Pathway
2. Athlete pathway into NZSIA
SAANZ
1. Better Communication and participation in Key areas.
Athlete and Coach Success
Success
Athlete success
SSNZ has had great success in the last 12 months.
2 Olympic medals
8 para medals
8 world cup podiums
3 X – Games medals
1 freeride world tour podium
1 world champion
2 junior world champion
Silver medal at world cup final womens GS
Coach success
The Olympics -6 of 13 Coaches were active NZSIA members .
Alpine: Tim Café and Alice Robinson
Freeride: Sam Lee and Craig Murray
Snowboard: Tommo, Mitch and Tom with Zoi & Christie
Adaptive: Ben & Jane with Adam and Corey. Richie with Carl
Freeski: Bruce, Tommy, Pete with the Wells’s & the Porteous’s
Management success.
Ski area management: Toby, Fiona, Nigel & Bridget
Karakia Timatanga
Whakataka te hau ki te uru
Whakataka te hau ki te tonga
Kia makinakina ki uta
Kia mataratara ki tai
E hi ake ana te atakura
(Hey) He tio, he huka, he hau hu
Tihei mauri ora
Cease the winds from the west
Cease the winds from the south
Let the breeze blow over the land
Let the breeze blow over the ocean
Let the red-tipped dawn come with a sharpened air
A touch of frost and a promise of a glorious day
Ko o~ku tipuna, Ko o~ku matua
Ko au
Ko au ko koe , Ko koe ko au
Mai terangi, Kite whenua
Tehei mauri ora
Ke aku nui, ke aku rahi, tena kotou katoa
Who I am:
Demo team – Interski Beitistolen 19?
General manager
This is a picture of me with exactly half of the management team of Cardrona Alpine resort.
.
Are There Mountains on that Island?
Aotearoa
In my career as a ski instructor I was constantly asked where I was from.
Most of the responses got were… I didn’t know you had snow or could ski down there. A tropical country where we surf – we do that too!
I story today is how that perception has changed so much in such a short time
Success
Aotearoa – Country and culture:
Diversity. & inclusion
Aotearoa is already a diverse country with a constant stream of new people choosing to migrate here to live in paradise and become a Kiwis. What happened on Friday the 15th as I left NZ is not us. These people are not us. They do not represent the way New Zealanders are and feel…
Melting pot
This has injected a worldwide view, vast capability and innovation into our country.
And for our industry
Aotearoa (New Zealand) is the melting pot for our international snow industry as it attracts off season training, employment and development opportunities for northern hemisphere enthusiasts.
Our culture
We have a culture that is highly independent in its actions, truly transparent but at the same time relatively flat in its hierarchy and collaborative in its thinking.
Togetherness? – transparency, flat structure – love rules super independent. (driving example) Not wanting to stand out…
Tall poppy – not likeing those that do stand out – crfitical
Our ski industry is no exception.
We had to learn how to drive excellence, find a unique race that we could win and then celebrate success – create stars!
A Quick Recap On Where We Have Come From
History
Coronet Peak technically was our first commercial ski area to open in 1947 with a Bill Hamilton invented rope tow.
The Ruapehu Ski Club was set up in 1913 and skiing started on Mt Ruapehu that year but this was considered to be a club operation until RAL (commercial entity) was formed by Sir Bryan Todd and Walter Haensli in 1954 to build NZ’s first chairlift.
Skis first used for mountaineering at mount cook in 1893
First skiing on Ruapehu in 1913 – Ruapehu ski club formed. National ski champs held in 1929 on Mt Ruapehu
1936 – first anz at Mt ruapehu
1938 first rope tow installed (broke down after 2 hours)
1939 Coronet Peak founded – 1947 foirst rope tow installed
1952 first NZ team competed at the winter Olympics in Olso Norway
1954 – NZ first chair lift Mt Ruapehuy
1964 – cornet peak install chair
1970 – 1979 5 new commercial ski areas open
1973 Mt Hutt oipens
1976 TC
1979 – Turoa and Mt Dobsopn
1980 Cardrona
1985 Remarkables
1992 we exceeded 1M skier days and won our first Olympic medal – seems like our step ups match medal performances.
Now – 26 resorts
26 years to double…
74 year history (1/3 of history to double)
Late 80’s SAANZ formed
Ski Council
Later Snowsports New Zealand formed in 2005?
Scale & Market
Scale & market
30% international visitors
1.9M skier days 2018
Slow growth… stayed at 1 mil through the 90’s and 1.4/5 from 200’s through to recently. Big jump in 2019.
1.4M skier days 2008 (quite stagnant until 2019 with big jump)
1000 skier days late 1990’s
Skier growth growth so coincidently in line with HP take off and success…. It makes it un coincidental.
Most open 4 – 5 months . June – October (similar issues with over capacity at early season & plenty of room and snow in later season but guests dry up)
From Tropical Island to Renowned Ski Destination and Training Ground
How did it happen?
SAANZ role
NZSIA role
SSNZ role
Ski industry structure
Independent bodies & purposeOverlap & integration
Late 80’s SAANZ formed
Ski Council
Later Snowsports New Zealand formed in 2005?
The Winter Performance Programme (ice and snow) was formed in 2005 to get the team ready for the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games. WPP was a NZ Academy of Sport South Island (ASI) initiative headed up by Mark Elliot and sat alongside the NZ Snowsports council which Miles Davidson ran.
Snow Sports NZ was formed 2010 when Ski Racing NZ, NZ Snowboard Union, Freeskiing NZ, Disabled Snowsports NZ, Cross Country Skiing NZ and Speed Skiing NZ amalgamated.
Instructor – coach pathway
Instructor – management pathway – instructors bring the passions for the sport and the top level of it into management
Collaboration between front line, guest service professionals – coaching professionals and ski area management. Interdepartmental relationships – powerful experience where we are all relying on each other and working together
SSNZ
Formed in 2005
Government support and backing for High performance
Capability – Sport science and coordinated coaching
SAANZ
Saanz is the industry group that represent the ski areas of New Zealand – executive team looking after common areas of Marketing & brand, technical, health and safety and workforce (training & immigration). My role.
Integration
NZSIA – employment, management, course & training hosts. Certification body. Appreciation for being one, transperant, open easy to understand. Payrates, etc. due employment and building relationships.
Official relationships with NZ resorts
Building Competitive Advantage
Facility development
Vision & purpose
Investment
Commitment
Big picture
Capability – internal & external
Competence (can we do it)
Resources (do we have enough people)
Culture (do we want to do it)
Resort manages all parts of its business. – private nature
Challenges with conflicts across values and desires and wants…
Out of this comes huge collaboration and respect between snow users.
Who our guests are
Giving Our Athletes What They Need...
Excellence in facilities
Competitions Junior development / pathway events Continental cups World cu
Evolving into a major event venue – Winter Games
Biennial from 2009 – 2017
Annual from 2018
FIS Junior World Champs (2)
FIS World Cups (20)
FIS Continental Cups (48)
Winter Games
738 athletes
42 nations
16 disciplines
6 venues
2 world cups
Junior world championships
7 Olympic medalists
Total audience 20+ mil
15 Million across Broadcast, Print Online
Total video views 484,191
Instagram Reach 1.5 Million
Facebook Reach 4.4 Million
10,000 images downloaded
An Open event to attract the worlds best athletes to compete
USA, Austria, Switzerland
NZL national Team members
Para Alpine demo event
An elite international sports event that attracts
6 of the Top 10 ranked athletes in the world to our World Cup events
10 of the Top 50 athletes to non-World Cup events
The best of the best aiming to get onto the Freeride World Tour
Opportunity for emerging talent to rise through 2* event
4* event
Success
Best athletes in the world integrated with ours
Aoteroa recognition
The Real Reward
This has been years in the making.
Structure, commitment, partnerships
A few individual successes : analese, Jossi, Sam,
And at Pyong Cghnage our new generation started and the rewards are coming.
Winter so far for Zoi
GOLD
X Games Slopestyle
SILVER
X Games big air
World Champion SS
USA Burton open GOLD
This year for Alice
Junior world champion (Giant Slalom)
16th in world cup at 16 years old.
2nd in WC on 17th March 2019
Coached by Tim café NZSIA demo team member
Adam Hall Para Legend
Coached by Jane and Ben
GOLD 8 years later GOLD again
Dad
World recognised – thanks to our success and our athletes
Olympic success, world cup events, chosen training grounds for all, spread of social media has helped us move from tropical island to world reknown snow destination.
Ski industry moves into tourism – industry recognition brining $1 bil to the tourism industry in NZ
Year round – moving from short seasons to year round – innovation in snowmaking, introduction of non skiing activity. Introduction of unique and “must do” tourism experiences
Our future – what will it look like in 10 years time.? Road replaced with Gondola’s? hospitality experiences (food, bev and accommodation) … the wave of kids coming means future success.
Our Future
Manaakitanga
Kaitiakitanga
Ke aku nui, ke aku rahi.
Tena kotou, tena kotou, tene ra ta te katua
