Four of Scotland ski centres are to spend £5.5 million on upgrades. Glencoe and Glenshee will upgrade chairlifts, whilst The Lecht and Nevis Range will upgrade drag lifts. It is unclear as yet if the replacement lifts will be brand new or better second hand lifts than those they replace.
The new cash follows a similar investment announced last June for Cairngorm, of around £6m. In both cases the vast majority of the money – more than 80% in Cairngorm's case and 75% for the other four centres – comes from public funds, particularly Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The ski centres also benefitted from a VAT rate cut on lift ticket sales announced in the budget, allowing them to keep more of the money raised from ticket sales.
The new chairlifts will cost approximately £2.5m at Glenshee and £1.9m at Glencoe taking up the bulk of the spend. The drag lift upgrades at Nevis Range will cost just over £700k, at The Lecht, £456,000. The investment at Cairngorm over the next five years is largely on buildings and other infrastructure, but their 14-15 news press release hinted at some lift upgrades this coming summer for winter 15-16, although when asked for details by J2Ski operator Natural Retreats did not respond.
Last season in Scotland around 235,000 skier days were recorded in Scotland, a fraction of the numbers during the heyday of skiing in the country in the 1970s and early 1980s but still a major contributor to the regional economy, according to Scottish government ministers.