Alps tourism braces itself for climate changes

High peaks that are clad in pristine white & seemingly reaching out to kiss the sky above; like a bride ready to walk down the altar, the Alps form a stunningly wonderful visual picture. While words often describe a lot, they fall short when they need to sufficiently sketch the picture of nature at its glorious best. While one can paint a picture with words; it pales in comparison to the magic of those snowy peaks, the brilliance of that gentle river whose surface glitters at the touch of early morning sun light like millions of stars that twinkle in the sky, the romance of the droplet of dew that shines like a diamond as it hangs onto the edge of a scarlet rose that pouts getting ready to blossom & the visual splendor of the valleys that that tell the mystic tales of times of immemorial with a carpet of green spread across them. That & more are the Alps.

While the Alps might just be the place you want to be come this summer, winter tourism is still huge on the mountain slopes. While there is the hopeless romantic in me who would be just bowled over by the natural vividness of the region & spend hours just gazing at it, there is also the adventure seeker who wishes to ski down the slopes of Alps. (& hopefully still remain intact in one piece) It is precisely this aspect that makes the Alps such a big draw in winter. With over 14 million people visiting just the Alpine slopes of Austria each winter, the industry is obviously a huge draw.
But with growing climate changes in the world & ever increasing world temperatures, (here we go again; global warming at work once more) the Alps are not as snow clad as once they used to be. With this aspect of Alps being so crucial for the Tourism industry, most ski resorts have resorted to making artificial snow. So what is wrong with that, you ask? Well, not much except the mere fact that it takes $857,730 to cover a half-mile of slope with man-made snow! That surely is a huge waste of money.
So, what is the solution for this? Simple, just turn the world back by 30 years & ala! We have snow again on the Alpine slopes. See, I provide simple solutions but somehow it seems a few people find them ‘irrational & hallucinatory’. I wonder why? Anyway, the scientists & experts (who claim to be smarter than me... only ‘claim’) feel that tourism industry in the region needs to focus on long term strategies for attracting tourists all round the year. This would mean developing alternate strategies. Some of the suggested ones go in the lines of promoting Alps as a medical rehab for allergies & growing more food to make local cuisines that would interest the tourists. (Wow! Those are actually plans? My idea at this point at least sounds cooler)
Scientists say that global warming & its affects must be taken as a challenge & one must not panic about it. This is indeed true as tourism in Alps is not alone in feeling the affects of global warming. Seriously speaking, the solutions could be in the form of encouraging more tourists to visit the Alps from all across the planet by reducing the costs & providing a more visually spectacular Alps, that many are ignorant of. Use the ‘Tour De France’ to make a statement. Creating a more innovative & aggressive ad campaign across the globe would surely help.
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Tags: Alps, Tourism, Skiing, Winter Resorts, France, Austria, Travel