COVID-19: Impact on the professional mountaineering community, by association
This statistic presents the results of a study on the financial implication of COVID-19 containment measures on members of the United Kingdom's (UK's) four main mountaineering associations, the Mountain Training Association (MTA), Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI), British Association of International Mountain Leaders (BAIML), and British Association of Mountain Guides (BMG). Members were asked about their expected income in the 2020-2021 financial year and their actual income in the 2018-2019 financial year. This statistic illustrates the mean loss of income anticipated as a percentage of the expected income taken as the income received in the 2018/2019 tax year.
Impact
Given the scenario of major disruption between the 14th of March and 14th of August 2020 to the non-essential work that members of these four associations carry out, members of the MTA see the largest mean loss of income compared to 2018/19 at 62.8 percent. The BMG is the association for members holding the highest internationally recognized mountaineering qualification and as such its members typically yield the greatest annual salary. The similarly large proportional mean loss of earnings for members of the BMG therefore corresponds to a greater absolute loss compared to any members of any of the other mountaineering associations.
Temporal extent
The 2019-20 COVID-19 pandemic has had an extensive effect across the entire outdoor sector. Due to the timing of the pandemic within Europe, from March 2020, the containment measures have already had devastating effects on the winter sports sector, and it is estimated that losses will continue to be incurred throughout the remainder of 2020 into spring 2021, with potential for long term international travel disruption and a lack of available spare funds for customers to make outdoor tourismrelated travel. The anticipated period of disruption is particularly important to mountaineering professionals due to the seasonal nature of many professions within the outdoor industry. As the summer period is often busier for professional mountaineers and may account for more than half of their potential “working year”.
Spatial extent
Throughout most of Europe, unprecedented containment measures have been implemented. Italy went into lock down on the 9th of March, restrictions were in place in France and Austria from the 13th of March, with a state wide lock down enforced from the 16th, Spain from the 14th of March, Switzerland on the 16th of March, Norway the 12th of March, and the UK from the 23rd of March. British mountaineering instructors and guides live and work in all of the locked down countries noted above and as such the presence of containment measures within each of these countries will have a sustained impact on the operating capacity of British mountaineering instructors and guides.
Impact
Given the scenario of major disruption between the 14th of March and 14th of August 2020 to the non-essential work that members of these four associations carry out, members of the MTA see the largest mean loss of income compared to 2018/19 at 62.8 percent. The BMG is the association for members holding the highest internationally recognized mountaineering qualification and as such its members typically yield the greatest annual salary. The similarly large proportional mean loss of earnings for members of the BMG therefore corresponds to a greater absolute loss compared to any members of any of the other mountaineering associations.
Temporal extent
The 2019-20 COVID-19 pandemic has had an extensive effect across the entire outdoor sector. Due to the timing of the pandemic within Europe, from March 2020, the containment measures have already had devastating effects on the winter sports sector, and it is estimated that losses will continue to be incurred throughout the remainder of 2020 into spring 2021, with potential for long term international travel disruption and a lack of available spare funds for customers to make outdoor tourismrelated travel. The anticipated period of disruption is particularly important to mountaineering professionals due to the seasonal nature of many professions within the outdoor industry. As the summer period is often busier for professional mountaineers and may account for more than half of their potential “working year”.
Spatial extent
Throughout most of Europe, unprecedented containment measures have been implemented. Italy went into lock down on the 9th of March, restrictions were in place in France and Austria from the 13th of March, with a state wide lock down enforced from the 16th, Spain from the 14th of March, Switzerland on the 16th of March, Norway the 12th of March, and the UK from the 23rd of March. British mountaineering instructors and guides live and work in all of the locked down countries noted above and as such the presence of containment measures within each of these countries will have a sustained impact on the operating capacity of British mountaineering instructors and guides.
