At the prize awarding ceremony on 10 June 2009, the best innovators in the Celje region received the highest recognitions for innovative techniques for 2008. The Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Celje has included the best innovations of the region in the selection of the best innovations on a national level, which is carried out under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia. This year, Unior presented the Snow Park Rogla built at the end of 2008, for which they received a bronze recognition.
The snow park for snowboarders and free-style skiers, which will serve as the Funpark Rogla bicycle park in the summer months, is located in the middle of the Mašinžaga ski slopes and has a minimal environmental impact. The materials used are environmentally sound. Artificial snow is produced from surrounding water without adding any chemicals. In the summer months, the snow park is expected to be used as a bicycle park, which is also environmentally friendly.
The aim of the construction of the snowboard and bicycle park was to acquire new target groups, which didn’t have suitable conditions for performing these activities in Slovenia. Our intention was to expand the scope of our offer and attract foreign guests, especially from south-eastern and eastern Europe, to increase the number of visitors and, consequently, to provide a greater demand for other services within the wider region. The project was designed and realized for competitions at the highest global level. This has provided the Rogla Ski Centre with additional integrity and a diverse offer.
In the spring months, we are planning to organize snowboarding camps until the snow melts. The purpose of this is to encourage young people to engage in sports through various activities, such as Veter v laseh, Turneja ulične košarke, etc.
The use of the park will also be possible in the summer months, when there is no snow, but the park is then appropriate for non-competitive disciplines, such as free riding and dirt biking. With both additional activities, we are extending the scope of our offer and expanding the added value of the experience park in several segments: accommodation and food services and the recognizability of the centre, which offers the possibility of so-called experience tourism in all seasons.
The park resulted in seven new workplaces: 5 park managers, 1 caterer and 1 park manager with snowgroomer. As we were the first in Slovenia to cooperate with the company Schneestern, which designed the park and supplied the park elements, we signed a dealership contract with them for covering the markets in Slovenia, the former Yugoslav republics, Bulgaria and Albania. This has provided us with guaranteed control over copyrights in designing and constructing parks in the above-mentioned areas.
