Abstract
Japan's skiing population has declined sharply over the last two decades, consequently the managements of ski fields have deteriorated and many ski fields have been temporarily or permanently closed. However, it is unclear what factors affect the closure of ski fields. In order to block the closure of ski fields and explore their survival methods, it is essential to clarify the tendency common to closed ski fields. In this study, we restricted the survey area to Nagano Prefecture, Japan and statistically compared open and closed ski fields with more than 10 factors. As a result, there were significant differences in 4 factors related to the size of ski fields. We also found that altitude differences and longest downhill distances have been correlated with skier's satisfaction for ski fields. These results suggest that the risk of closure of ski fields may be higher with smaller scale and therefore lower level of satisfaction of skiers. Interestingly, there were no significant differences in open and closed ski fields with respect to distances from interchanges and degrees of difficulty of ski slopes. These results also suggest that these two factors may be independent of the closure of ski fields. Taken together, our results may be useful for considering the survival of ski fields in Japan in the future.
