Five years after the global economic crash seemed to put a halt to ever more extravagant indoor snow centre developments with ever longer indoor slopes (slopes up to 2km long were announced, so far the longest built is about a third of that), more and more projects have emerged during 2013 that indicate the 'indoor snow industry' is moving forward again.
Around 90 indoor ski areas have opened in more than 30 countries around the world since the first in Australia, Belgium and Japan opened 25 years ago. More than 50 are still operational – the most in Germany, The Netherlands and the UK with half a dozen each, although slopes in continental Europe are up to three times longer than those in the UK.
However asia, where Japan was once the dominant indoor snow centre nation in the 1990s (they've early al closed there now), is where the most projects are currently under construction with Bahrain, Kuwait and Egypt all set to join the world's snowsports nations in the next year.
Projects announced by the Dutch indoor snow company SnowWorld however seem to be moving forward with major new ski centres planned for Paris and Barcelona, the latter mooted as part of Spanish bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
However the success or otherwise of indoor centres remains problematic. While Mayor Boris announced a major Olympic legacy indoor snow centre venue by the Westfield shopping mall in London and a Thai billionaire brewing tycoon announced a centre for Bangkok modelled on Ski dubai and accessed by a gondola across the Thai capital's main river reminiscent of the Emirites Airline over the Thames, Manchester's Chill Factore is up for sale and the operators of the Xscape centres in Milton Keynes and Castleford have been sold. In the spring the Otztal region which operates a modern centre in Germany withdrew their financial support, leading to its closure, although it does now plan to re-open for the winter with a revised management strategy.
Political instability in the Middle East and rising energy costs may not be seen as favourable factors in indoor snow centre development but so far the Middle Eastern projects are reported to be "unaffected" by the unrest and some centres have turned to renewable energy, notably a large centre in Germany which has covered its vast roof in solar panels.