Partly due to the credit crunch skiing occupancies lowered last winter.
In spite of excellent early bookings coupled with first class snow.
This drop in numbers comes after 6 winters of successive growth within the skiing industry, and the number of skiers reduced from 1.15 million in 2008 to 950000 last winter.
Partly due to skiers giving the season a miss, while additional snowboarders who’d typically take two or more skiing breaks, merely took the one.
The independent travel sector fell by 15% with some low priced airlines reducing the no. of flights to certain cities.
However tour operators also saw the bookings decreasing by a similar 15%.
Still, the top 6 tour operators market share remained at 73% and a France ski holiday carried on as the favourite destination with around 37% of ski holidays.
This meant that several major tour operators cut the number of catered chalets they lease this coming season.
Catered ski chalets will witness a drop in clients due to the fact that a catered ski chalet incurs more costs with regards to hosts and chefs and lease if it is unsold.
It remains unlikely that we will benefit from the type of special offers that were around this winter.
Although prices are in all likelihood to augment, costs probably won’t go up a lot.
