Thanks to the Depression Numerous Ski Businesses Will Be Slashing Their Number of Catered Chalets
Friday, July 31st, 2009In light of the credit crunch skiing sales went down last winter.
Even with excellent pre season holiday bookings coupled with great skiing.
This fall in vacationers comes after six years of sequential growth in the ski industry, and the numbers reduced from 1.1 million in 2008 to under a million last ski season.
This is in part due to skiers giving the season a miss, and additional skiers who would commonly take two snowboarding breaks, just had one.
The independent travel sector fell by 15% with a few low cost airlines cutting the number of flights to several cities.
However tour operators also saw their reservations reducing by about the same amount.
Nevertheless, the top 6 companies market share continued at 72% and France remained the favorite holiday destination with around 37% of ski holidays.
Due to this many tour operators cut down the no. of ski chalets they rent this coming season.
Catered ski holidays will see a reduction in numbers as a luxury catered chalet costs more for the tour operator in terms of chalet chefs and lease if it is unsold.
Therefore it is unlikely we shall see the deals that were available last winter.
Although prices are likely to rise, costs are unlikely to increase substantially.
Next winter beyond any doubt poses real challenges for the ski industry that is impacted by the consequences of the global recession, exchange rate, higher costs of fuel as well as high fixed running costs for skiing businesses.
Next winter snowboarders will become more cost aware, which shall add to a reversal of the recent years which saw a development in the skiing industry.