In Part Due to the Credit Crunch Several Ski Businesses Are Cutting Their Number of Catered Chalets
Thanks to the recession ski bookings dropped this season.
Even with cracking pre season reservations along with great snow.
This reduction in no.s follows seven seasons of continuous growth within the snowboarding industry, and the number of holidaymakers contracted from 1.15 million in 2008/9 to less than a million last ski season.
This is partly due to holiday makers giving their annual ski trip a miss, and other vacationers who would ordinarily have two ski holidays, just had one.
The independent travel sector fell by 15% and a few low cost airlines reducing the number of their routes to some destinations.
Some tour operators witnessed their sales falling by 15%.
However, the top 6 tour operators share stayed at a healthy 73% and the French Alps carried on as the most popular holiday destination with about 37% of the English ski market.
Because of this several major operators lowered the number of catered chalets they rent this coming season.
Catered chalets will witness a fall in vacationers as a catered ski chalet costs more in terms of chefs and rent when it is unoccupied.
It’s unlikely therefore we shall find the type of special offers that were around last season.
Although prices are probably going to to go up, prices probably won’t increase substantially.
The 2009/10 winter presents serious challenges for an industry that is touched by by the events of the recession, weakness of the pound, soaring fuel costs as well as large fixed operating costs for snowboarding companies.
