Sharp decline in British skiers
Thursday July 2, 2009 - Email this article to a friend

Both the independent sector and the tour operator sector fell by 15% with just over 1m British people skiing or snowboarding last winter.

The season before it was 1.22m.

It's a significant fall, despite what you may read elsewhere on other ski web sites, as the ski industry tries to paint a positive glow on the drop.

The figures were revealed this week in the Crystal Ski Industry Report 2009 that is widely seen as the most accurate set of statistics available on the state of the British ski industry.

The blame for the fall is due to the poor economic conditions as the snowfall last winter was the best for decades.

Figures show that France continues to be the most popular country for the British with 37% of the market, though both Austria and Italy grew last year as the destinations were perceived to be cheaper.

Poor exchange rateAustria went up 1.8% and Italy 1.1%.  Andorra continued its fall from grace now taking just 5% of the market.  The season before it was 7% and just a few years ago 12%.

The exchange rate was just one reason people stayed at home or cut back on the number of ski trips they had.

“It was a pretty difficult winter for all concerned and we are reducing some capacity for next season with 4 in 10 of our chalets going from our programme,” says the Managing Director of Crystal Ski, Mathew Prior. “However we are launching new products and in some cases reducing the cost of skiing for next winter.”

The new product is called Crystal Ski Plus and aims to offer cheaper all-inclusive package to top class ski resorts.  At the moment they are being offered to Les Arcs and La Plagne in France with the cost for a week starting at £479, a reduction of £184 on last year’s prices.

For an interview with Mathew Prior about the current state of the market and his prediction for next winter see the video below.

 

Overall though the average cost of a ski holiday will rise by around 3% and the price of a holiday in peak season (New Year and Half Term) will not come down.

The 15% fall is not a surprise to us here at PlanetSKI as we have been reporting a fall of 15% - 20% throughout the winter.  We got our information from what we saw before our eyes out in the Alps last winter as chalets were moth-balled, companies reduced prices and some industry figures we were shown.

Still looking goodHowever, it is not all doom and gloom in the ski world.

School trips held up thus boding well for the next generation of skiers and snowboarders, the great snow we had last winter will give people optimism when booking next season and of course the ski industry has ridden out economic downturns before and bounced back.

The shake up will mean many people will look seriously at the prices and maybe, just maybe people will start being less greedy.

We’ll bring you an extended interview with Mathew Prior and a further, in-depth, look at what it means for the ski industry and the British skier later in the week.

Some experts are saying that we should book for next winter now. We're not so sure.

Next winter though is going to be substantially different from last.

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