As a country Slovenia has incredible green credentials - something which inevitably jars with broadening its aviational connectivity. Nevertheless, the question must be asked - does the country want more tourists, or is it focusing on bringing in fewer visitors who arrive with deeper pockets and are more respectful of their natural surroundings? Each trait…
Maribor Airport: Flight of fancy or ready for take off?
When is an airport not an airport? I suppose the answer would be when it doesn't facilitate commercial flight movements despite it having the infrastructure, track record, and ability to do so. Two such operations spring to mind - make that three with the impending closure of Doncaster Sheffield Airport - namely Blackpool in the…
Kobla ski resort must seek relevance and a realistic rebirth
It is several years, perhaps half a decade ago, since I last wrote about the proposed Bohinj 2864 ski centre, an ambitious project to not only reactivate the redundant Kobla 'resort' above Bohinjska Bistrica, but to develop it into a Tirol-type winter sports' destination that are ten-a-penny in neighbouring Austria. Slovenia has never sought to…
Slovenia: Spring conditions fail to dampen Maribor’s Golden Fox weekend
This weekend's annual Golden Fox Ski World Cup programme saw the best female exponents of slalom and giant slalom take on the Radvanje piste adjacent to Slovenia's second city Maribor, and part of the Pohorje massif. Despite occupying a modest altitude Maribor's yearly skiing jamboree has endured, although spring conditions meant an astonishing 95% of…
Maribor Airport facing its very own China Syndrome
The potential loss of large amounts of farmland and tree cover abutting Maribor's airport flies in the face of an 'environment first' credo that Slovenia has become synonymous with, and of which it is rightly proud. Representing something of a reality check of what value is placed on prime agricultural and arboriculture that serves not…
Slovenia: Pohorje ski resort to invest in a diversified future
A proposal to substantially invest in Slovenia's Pohorje ski resort highlights the need for lower-lying areas reliant upon winter sports income to diversify their business models, in the face of the very real threat posed by global warming. In the east of the country Pohorje is in effect the playground for the Mariborcani, much in…
Maribor Airport the real victim of VLM Airlines’ demise
To describe VLM Airlines as Maribor Airport's 'anchor tenant' somewhat stretches a definition more associated with large retail concerns, situated to attract custom to smaller, adjacent businesses. Despite offering a modern, fit for purpose terminal, VLM were though all Maribor's Edvard Rusjan Airport had, aside from sporadic charter flights for visiting soccer teams. Having recently…
Alpine Adventures, Soccer, Central Asian Autocracies & Secessionist Politics 