Kittelfjäll

Investing heavily in developing Kittelfjäll 

The company Kittelfjäll Utveckling has in recent years invested heavily in its operations and in collaborating with other actors in Kittelfjäll to create a sustainable year-round destination. This has proved to be a success factor and Kittelfjäll is growing very rapidly with new visitors and vacation home owners. 

Kittelfjäll Utveckling owns the ski resort in Kittelfjäll, the hotel property and caravan site (the hotel its self is run by a different operator) and works with land development by selling plots, turnkey vacation homes and apartments. Major investments have been made and more are on the way. The first step was to invest in a new snow cannon system for the ski resort, which will improve the quality of skiing in all weathers and extend the ski season. This was followed by the modernisation of the hotel business and the creation of a modern caravan site which will eventually offer 125 pitches. 

“Kittelfjäll is one of Sweden’s best ski resorts, known for its accessible lift-borne off-piste skiing. This is a strength we should highlight, but at the same time we want to reach out to others, such as families with children and mountain enthusiasts. That’s why we’ve invested in building a new children’s area, with a lift, merry-go-round and barbecue spot. We have also developed the cross-country ski trails” says Roger Vikström, CEO of Kittelfjäll Utveckling.

Now the focus is on increasing visitor numbers all year round, and this work is being done in collaboration with other local businesses. Key elements of this are to develop a new commercial zone, increase private construction and encourage more people to either build or buy vacation homes in Kittelfjäll. 

“In our long-term strategy and development plan, an important cornerstone was collaboration with business and destination development, so we took the initiative to start a destination company. The fact that private companies are responsible for such an investment is probably unique in Sweden, but we saw the need and the solution and that’s how it went” says Roger Vikström, CEO of Kittelfjäll Utveckling.

The focus on collaboration has proven to be a success factor, the number of visitors and vacation home owners in Kittelfjäll has increased significantly over the past five years. 

“The funding from Norrlandsfonden has been extremely important for us. One challenge for many companies in the Nordic region is access to capital. It is therefore important that there are actors like Norrlandsfonden who understand the conditions for entrepreneurs in our part of the country and have great confidence in us.”