Famous skiers Pirmin Zurbriggen (left) and Marc Giradelli (right) with Zermatt's Markus Hasler and Daniel Luggen.
There are several different 'best ski award' awards out there at the moment. Here are J2ski we're always slightly sceptical as each has to have some criteria and we may not agree with it. Some limit the resorts that enter, others ask entrants to pay to enter – in short nearly all seem to have one flaw or another and we don't usually bother reporting them.
However as Zermatt has again secured top spot in the overall rankings in the "Best Ski Resort in the Alps, 2016" awards, and as Zermatt seems like a resort that could win such an award, we thought we'd make an exception!
"Best Ski Resort" is, they say, the biggest independent visitor satisfaction survey for Alpine resorts. It is conducted every two years, most recently between December 2015 and April 2016 when nearly 50,000 snow sports fans in 54 selected top ski resorts took part in the survey (so only 54 resorts, and we seem to recall a bit of a focus on the Germanic side of Europe, but still…)
The main points covered by the survey were 20 criteria of satisfaction, ranging from the size of the skiing area, via the quality of the ski pistes, to the ambience of the locality.
"With victory in the categories of piste preparation / piste quality, atmosphere, cosiness, exclusiveness plus top-five places in the areas of accommodation/hotels, snow safety, safety on the slopes, experience of nature, après-ski, tranquillity and relaxation, wellness offering, ski schools, authenticity, first-time visitors and size of skiing area / variety of slopes, the Valais ski resort at the foot of the Matterhorn can offer guests more than mere satisfaction," a statement from Zermatt states.
In the words of Markus Haler, CEO of Zermatt Bergbahnen AG: "We are tremendously pleased to have won the award as Best Ski Resort for 2016, particularly as it is based on the honest opinions of international visitors in a worldwide comparison. We also see this award as an affirmation of our continued investment in the quality of our services and lift facilities, for example the state-of-the-art chairlift from Gant to Blauherd and the world's highest 3S cableway up to the Klein Matterhorn."
