Because of the Depression Many Ski Operators Will Be Slashing Their Number of Catered Chalets
Thanks to the down turn ski accomodation occupancies fell this season.
Even with strong early reservations coupled with great skiing conditions.
These drops in holidaymakers follows 7 seasons of development in the snowboarding industry, and the number of skiers reduced from 1 million in 2008 to less than a million last year.
This is in part due to skiers giving the season a miss, and other holiday makers who’d generally take 2 skiing vacations, only took the one.
A fall of 15% was felt by the independent travel sector and a handful no frills airlines reducing the no. of their routes to several destinations.
Moreover tour operators saw the sales going down by 15%.
Even so, the top operators share of the market remained at 73% and France continued to remain the favorite ski destination with 37% of skiing holidays.
Due to this several major ski operators cut the amount of luxury ski chalets they lease this coming season.
The catered chalet markets especially will see a reduction in clients due to the fact that a luxury catered chalet incurs more costs in terms of employees and rent if it is not sold.
Therefore it’s unlikely that we will witness the type of special offers that were around this year.
Although costs are in all likelihood to rise, they are unlikely to go up considerably.
The 2009/10 winter undoubtedly poses real issues for an industry which is touched by by the outcomes of the depression, exchange rate pressures, increased fuel costs as well as large fixed running costs for ski holiday companies.
Next winter skiers will become more and more cost sensitive, this will contribute to a reversion of the recent years which saw a growth in independent travel.
[Large-scale ski tour operators might re-gain the customers lost to the independent sector if they use their purchasing power to achieve better prices and pass this to consumers as appealing deals.
"Because of the Depression Many Ski Operators Will Be Slashing Their Number of Catered Chalets" was written on July 20, 2009 and filed in Best Travel Resources, Recreation Portal