We have conducted several surveys to help quantify the community support for the skifields. By themselves, surveys won't save the skifields, but they help the key decision makers (such as the Crown, Iwi and major creditors) to understand the sentiment of the public and they help the various stakeholders express their views in a structured way. These surveys have been vitally important to the Save Mt Ruapehu team in refining the way that we engage with the broad community who love the mountain.
1. Life Pass: Capital Raising Survey 2022
The first was a Capital Raising Survey conducted in early October 2022 to assess demand to invest equity capital into the skifields from Life Pass Holders and existing shareholders. This survey asked specific questions about share price, the non-profit status of the company and investor demand. We found significant interest from life pass holders and existing shareholders in investing further equity capital into the business, even with no prospect of dividends. The survey results presentation is available here:
2. Community: Governance Survey 2022
The Mt Ruapehu skifields governance and organisational structure survey conducted in November 2022 was designed to involve a broad range of key stakeholders and to assess sentiment towards the key governance attributes of the skifields. The governance attributes for evaluation were chosen by codifying comments from in-person interviews and discussions on social media, along with feedback from the prior capital raising survey. Some issues achieved fairly unanimous feedback, others split the group with clearly opposing views. We found broad support for the community-owned non-profit model with high interest in business stability and support for the day-to-day staff. About 900 people responded. You can view the live results of the survey here using an online google spreadsheet: Governance Survey Results Summary Sheet
3. Community: Crowdfunding Survey 2022
The crowdfunding survey was launched in November 2022. The survey asked a wide range of stakeholders, local communities and a broad sample of North Island skiers how much cash they would be willing to contribute to support the skifields. The crowdfunding options were separated across:
Product Crowdfunding
Rewards Crowdfunding
Investment Crowdfunding
The survey also tested sentiment from potential contributors towards the main point of contention from the governance survey ,the non-profit community-owned model vs the corporate-owned for-profit model. This survey is designed to collect individual expressions of interest and create a platform for future crowdfunding to support the skifields. About 700 people responded. You can view the live survey results of the crowdfunding in an online google spreadsheet: Crowdfunding Survey Results Summary Sheet
4. Life Pass: Capital Raising Survey 2023
The 2023 Life Pass Survey focused on willingness of life pass holders to pay a $1,000 settlement fee to re-activate their life passes and stabilise the business. About 3,000 people responded.
5. Community: Investment Survey 2023
The 2023 investment survey focusses on the appetite for the wider mountain community to purchase shares in the business that operates the skifields. The survey presents several scenarios might impact people's willingness to invest such as the non-profit status of the entity, the ability for investors to re-sell shares at a higher price and/or the issue of keeping both Mt Ruapehu skifields united. About 1,000 people responded. Detailed breakdown: 2023 Investment Survey
Non-Community Initiated Surveys
There have also been several surveys initiated by other parties to ask different questions, focus on different audiences or to cross-verify findings from the community led surveys:
MBIE Life Pass Renewal Survey - This survey in 2022 was sent out by PwC to life pass holders at the request of MBIE. It sought to assess the willingness to pay a $2,500 renewal fee. About 3,000 life pass holders said yes.
PwC Community Product Crowdfunding Survey - This survey was initiated by PwC to assess non-life-pass-holder and wider-mountain-community interest in products such as a five year ski pass. About 5,000 people responded to at least one product. Breakdown here: PwC Tourism Operator Update
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