滑雪客越来越少，科技能否成为行业救星？

“Taco Beast”是搭建在雪地履带式卡车上的流动餐车，在Steamboat滑雪度假村，饥饿的滑雪玩家和滑雪板玩家可以通过应用程序来寻找它。在本滑雪季季末，“Taco Beast”将可以通过缆椅直接配送玉米卷饼和啤酒。

Steamboat及其Taco Beast是母公司Alterra一项宏伟计划的一部分，该计划旨在将科技引入滑雪场。借助Alterra的Ikon滑雪联卡，滑雪玩家可以享用24个滑雪度假村的设施。

Steamboat的首席运营官兼总裁鲍勃·珀尔曼说：“你可以使用这个应用程序来绘制日间的滑雪路线图，并查看哪些朋友在山里。”

与此同时，Alterra及其竞争对手Vail Resorts还推出了其他技术驱动型服务，来改善山里的体验，其中包括可以透过服装识别的智能通行证，而且为滑雪者和滑雪板玩家拍摄日间照片的滑道摄像头亦能识别此类通行证。其他创新包括使用技术来帮助客户寻找缆车和特许通道，并在缆车使用旺季管理交通流量。

新科技反映了度假村改善其客户体验的决心，但这也是滑雪行业为避免业务下滑而采取的紧急举措之一。尽管2018-19年滑雪季充足的雪量为美国滑雪场带来了5900万名游客，这一数字自1979-80年度以来排名第四，然而事实在于，这一运动的参与者正在下滑。活跃滑雪者和滑雪板玩家的数量此前在2011年超过了1000万，但如今略低于900万。

滑雪行业面临的挑战包括休闲爱好的改变以及较高的价格——优质雪场单日票价如今接近200美元。另一个重大的挑战在于环境变化，它有可能会导致滑雪季的缩短或消失，而且长期以来，婴儿潮一代一直是这项运动的中坚力量，但随着其年龄的增长，他们的身体变得越来越脆弱，因此也就无法从事这项运动。

在这一背景下，Taco Beast提供的应用下单服务以及其他新潮手段可能有助于减缓滑雪行业的下滑，但难以遏制这一趋势。（财富中文网）

译者：冯丰

审校：夏林

At Steamboat Ski Resort in Colorado, hungry skiers and snowboarders can use an app to track down the “Taco Beast,” a roving food truck set atop a Snowcat. By the end of this ski season, they’ll be able to send taco and beer orders right from the chairlift.

Steamboat and its Taco Beast are part of a larger effort by parent company Alterra, which offers access to two dozen ski resorts through its Ikon pass, to bring tech to the slopes.

“You can use the app to map your day skiing, track total vertical feet, and see where your friends are on the mountains,” says Rob Perlman, COO and President of Steamboat.

Meanwhile, Alterra and its competitor, Vail Resorts, have dabbled with other tech-driven tricks to improve the mountain experience. These include smart passes that can be scanned through clothing, and which can be read by on-slope cameras that offer skiers and boarders photos of their day. Other innovations involve using tech to help customers navigate lift and concession lines, and manage traffic flow on busy lift days.

The new tech reflects the resorts’ desire to improve the customer experience, but it’s also part of an urgent effort by the ski industry to stave off decline. While abundant snow in the 2018-19 season produced 59 million visits to U.S. slopes—the fourth best total since 1979-80—the reality is the number of participants in the sport is tapering. The number of active skiers and snowboarders last eclipsed 10 million in 2011 and the number is now much closer to 9 million.

The challenges facing the ski industry include shifting leisure habits as well as high prices—single day tickets for a premium resort now cost almost $200. Equally pressing is climate change, which threatens to shorten or eliminate the ski season, and aging baby-boomers, who long made up the nucleus of the sport but are now increasingly too fragile to pursue it.

In this context, app-based orders from a Taco Beast and other gimmicks may help slow skiing’s decline but are unlikely to stop it.