No end in sight
Wednesday February 17, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

In Verbier this week one of the ski schools, Altitude, is handing out free Vin Chaud in the main square in an attempt to raise its profile and drum up business.   Ski and snowboard schools have been particularly badly hit this winter as the expense of a lesson is perhaps the first thing people cut back on.

One ski school has reduced its full time staff by 25% this winter.

Verbier is highly reliant on the British market and numbers are down.

Recently PlanetSKI toured round a number of resorts in the French part of the Portes du Soleil and ski schools there reported bookings down too.

Join the queueHowever this half term week in Verbier the slopes are full and the ski schools too. There are large queues at all the main lifts; not so good for those trying to get up the mountain but a good sign of how busy things are.

We are now half way through the 2009/10 season, so how has it gone?

As with all these things it depends on who you talk to and we talk to alot of people; from the movers and shakers in the largest ski companies, to resort officials, tourist offices, ski school directors, equiment manufacturers and, yes, ordinary skiers and snowboarders out on holiday.

The ones that count but whose voices are often unheard.

There is no doubt that bookings have not recovered from the fall of around 20% last winter and overall numbers are probably down, but not by that much.

We have spoken to many people at the beginning of the season who said that they might not ski but have gone anyway -  they have though changed their purchasing behaviour; where they have gone, how many times and what they have done while in a resort.

The problem for many in the industry though is that this comes with some heavy discounting and many skiers and snowboarders are cutting back on their spending on so-called "extras" - new clothing and equipment, ski lessons, expensive lunches up the mountain, 4* hotels and even full-area ski passes.

"People are looking closely at their costs on a ski holiday and so we have to react to that by providing what they want at a price they can afford," says Diane Palumbo, from the British company Ski World.

"We have had a few poor and worrying weeks  but things are better than we hoped for at the beginning of the season and the end of the season is going well."

Her view is supported by Crystal, the largest British Tour operator, though the company admits to fairly torrid times and describes the future as "challenging".

We'll be having an extended PlanetSKI interview with the head of Crystal, Mathew Prior, later this month but in the meantime here is his general take on the situation.

However, there have been many positive things this winter.  For a start the snow has been pretty good; nothing like the bumper snowfalls of last winter but then that was a season that comes around once in a generation.

See this PlanetSKI feature on the difficulties of assessing this winter's snow.

December in SwitzerlandIf the snow had been poor then it would have been little short of disasterous.

It may sound slightly perverse but one piece of good news is that not many companies have gone out of business.  There were real concerns last Autumn that some would, but so far they haven't.

There have been a few rumours but nothing substantial.

Also the high levels of discounts, see here for the latest eye watering offers in our deals and discounts section, means that many skiers and snowboarders are benefiting.  It has also cut back on some of the downright greediness of some resorts and businesses.

We are of course just half way through the season and with 2 months to go we will continue to try to keep our finger on the pulse of what is going on in the ski world.

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