Ski areas management and safety: Palandoken ski center practice

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of skiers about management and safety of skiing fields at palandöken ski center.A sample of 624 skiers (i.e. Turkey, Russia, Netherland and other) who came to palandöken ski center to do ski, participated in this study including 360 males (57,7%) and 264 females (42,3%)The ?Ski Fields Safety Scales? (SFSS) was used to collect data developed by the researcher. SFSS is a 23 items scale consists of 4 subscale named as (1) ski center, (2) ski-run, (3) personnel and (4) mechanical facilities. Respondents were asked to rate the each items on 5 point Likert type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Principles component factor analysis with varimax rotation and Cronbach alpha method were used to test the reliability and validity of the scale.Independent samples t-test analysis was used to test differences in SFSS subscales with respect to gender. ANOVA (nationality, age, education level, skiing aim, ski branch, ski level, ski experience, where did they learn skiing, snow quality) was used to examine the mean differences considering 4 subscales. Besides, the Pearson's correlation was used to test the correlation between SFSS subscales and skiers education level.Results indicated that, females had higher mean scores than males in all 4 subscales SFSS and as skiers? education level increased, the perceptions of skiers about management and safety of skiing fields seemed to decrease.As a result ?personnel adequacy?, ?ski center adequacy? and mechanical facilities adequacy? were the most important reasons that affect perceptions of skiers about management and safety of skiing fields. It can be said that Palandöken is suitable, adequate and safety ski center for the individuals who did these kinds of ski branches.Key words: Ski Areas, Ski Centers, Security and Management, Palandöken Ski Center