The History of Ski Tourism

Allegedly, skis were used around 4000 years ago as a means of transport: Skis dating back to 2000 BC have been found in Sweden. In the year 770, a missionary described the inhabitants of Lapland as “Skridfinnen” (gliding Finns). The wooden slats, which were needed to travel across the deep snow in Northern Europe, were chopped out of tree trunks with an axe. Before skis were used for leisure purposes, the term for “ski” was “snowshoe”, as it denoted crossing large areas of snow, rather than descending slopes, as we understand it today.

Skis have been used for leisure and sports purposes since 1850, when the first ski race took place in the Norwegian town of Christiania, nowadays known as Oslo. Approximately 20 years later, skiing in Alpine countries developed into a sports discipline. The foundation of the first German ski association in 1895, the Black Forest Ski Club, marked the beginning of organised ski sports in the Central German Uplands. Pupils at schools in Braunlage, Harz (Germany), were taught to ski as far back as 1896, provided the snow conditions were good. In 1910, the princely house of Waldeck donated 200 German marks to the town of Willingen, Sauerland (Germany), so that ski shoes could be purchased for primary school children. In the same year, an advertisement appeared in the Sauerland’s regional newspaper stating “lessons offered” through the new ski club.

The first German drag lift was put into operation in 1910 in the Schollachtal, Black Forest, after one German patent, as well as five foreign patents were issued. According to the Black Forest tourism association, this lift, which had been driven by hydropower since 1906, was the world’s first operational ski lift.

After this transition from a means of transport to a form of sport, skiing started to play a more significant role in the tourism industry in the early 1950s: Profits were only achieved as of the second season for most tourism resorts. Meanwhile, there are now many resorts, particularly in France, that were purely founded for winter sports tourism. However, the winter season is so dominant, even in some Austrian and Italian resorts (Obertauern, Cervinia, Sestrieres), that almost all of the hotels close during the summer months.

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