Current situation: market assessment based on results

In the winter sports segment, transport income decreased by 10.9 per cent to CHF 19.6 million. Demand from the beginning of 2016 until the end of the season in spring 2016 was below average. Despite good slope conditions, numbers of both day trippers and holiday visitors decreased. Thanks to an early winter break, Jungfrau Railways was able to start the new winter season by the middle of November 2016. Powerful snowmaking facilities made good conditions for the slopes in the Kleine Scheidegg ski area, despite the ongoing high-pressure weather in December. In the Grindelwald-First area, in the exceptionally snowy early winter 2016, a reduced operation for freestylers was possible.

In the highly competitive and saturated winter sports market, winter sports destinations with snow safety, high quality, varied slopes and plenty of convenience stand out. Demand will continue to stagnate in day tourism. A continuous improvement of the integration of tourism services has meant compensation by a higher number of holiday visitors. As a specialist provider of transport services and slopes, the Jungfrau Railway Group relies on the performance of third parties to complete the value chain. In the Jungfrau region, DMO [4] makes an important contribution to integration. Direct partnerships with hotels that provide a sufficient number of beds of the appropriate quality for skiers will gain in importance.

The Jungfrau Ski Region benefits from the unique backdrop of the Bernese Alps and the corresponding possibilities to use the feeder lifts even more intensively during the winter with international excursion tourism. The new tricable gondola from Grindelwald to the highest point of the ski area, an element of the V-Cableway project, has been designed from the outset for this mixed use.