UK Skier Numbers Drop for Third Season In A Row Says Industry Study

Austria - On The Up

Crystal, the UK's largest tour operator, have released their annual study of the UK ski market. The bad news is that it was down again for the third season in a row, after hopes a year ago that last winter would be the 'bounce back winter.' The good news is that Crystal reckon that the smaller decline last winter was due to exceptional circumstances, in particular Easter being at it's next-to-latest possible date on April 24th ruling out a lot of destinations for Easter breaks. The good news for tour operators too, Crystal say, is thast their share of the market increased by 1%. The top seven operators' market shares representing 85% of the total tour operator market.
The Crystal Ski Industry Report 2011 found the market declined by about 5% to 910,900 in 2010/11 following two previous years of decline of 13.3% and 11% respectively.
The independent travel sector showed the biggest fall (by 8.2% to 270,200 skiers, down from 294,300) predominantly as a result of the continuing increase in flight and ski carriage costs.
Sadly the schools market also experienced a reduction in volume for the second time since 1999/2000 with a fall of 3.7%, similarly affected by the Easter shift.
"Crystal Ski strengthened its market leadership last season to 32%, up from 28% due to its attractive Ski Plus packages, and Thomson Ski also saw an increase of 2000 skiers. First Choice saw a fall in its market share from 22,000 to 10,000 as a result of capacity reductions. However, TUI Ski remains the clear market leader with 40% share, up from 37% last year." said a statement from the company.
France continues to be the most popular country with British skiers accounting for 32.5% in the 2010/11 season. However, this is the third consecutive year of fall in market share (down from 33.2% last winter) predominantly due to the ongoing perception of high prices in resort. By Contrast Austria, Bulgaria and Andorra bounced back a little. North America was slightly down due to fuel supplement costs.
"The Crystal Ski Industry Report finds strong evidence that customers have stayed away due to financial constraints rather than falling out of love with the sport. The report predicts that skiers will continue to be price-sensitive next season, but the more favourable calendar combined with a hopefully more stable economic environment could lead to a "bottoming out" of the market." said the statement.
The full report is online here: http://mag.digitalpc.co.uk/fvx/crystal/sir2011/

Crystal are probably noticing a fall in numbers booking with them, more like. Mainly, from experience, because their chalets are crap, their food is a disgrace, and their staff are inexperienced. Just my take on them.

The mag.digital report was quite interesting. Wickers would appreciate the changes in France/Austria! It is abit of aggrandisment, but the Crystal report is well structured. I would like to see the Inghams equivalent. I cannot see how Crystal can accurately measure the independant market. Their reasoning for independants is suspect, blaming ski transport cost~ that just looks like sales pitch. According to Crystal I have only skied 2 weeks in the past 2 years, (as opposed to 13 wks)

You can get a good feel for the independant market from figures from the tourist boards and lift companies - you can then cross compare with the stats from the low cost carriers and the ferry companies which gets you quite close to the number...of course, there will then be some tour operator bias on that but the report is after all, a bit of PR to boost skiing!!

Hi Smartee, I'm not sure about the independant market. Large numbers go in through Munich, Geneva, Grenoble, et al. They do not always conform to weekend flights. The lift companies do not list by nationality. The TBs do, although I would not like to be the collator of that data! There may be a developed algorythm, but Crystal is looking to downplay all others. Do they have an agenda? My feel for the independant market is that there is an upturn.

You would be surprised the data you can get from the lift companies. Not all but many can give nationality break down and give details of shorter duration ticket sales which are increasingly significant.
Don't misunderstand me the report is written with an agenda in mind and that is to favour the tour operator but the independent market did stall a bit lasy year with a bunch of flying being cut into Turin and Grenoble
As to the outlook the inflexible model of the likes of Crystal is under a lot of pressure but there is a wealth of smaller operators (like mine, Zenith holidays) that provides flexibility alongside bonding security and some extra buying power and some of the independent market appreciate that and are moving that way.
Just my assessment though and the industry is in flux at the moment. Will be worth watching

It was an erratic snow year with the very warm temps which caused the season to end early in the lower resorts due to a lot of the base disappearing to the warm January period, although I was limited to one ski week due to my boiler packing up mid winter but if the snow had been better i would have found the money for a March break. :cry:

I can't see how the tour ops can really know what numbers of us travel independantly.

The airlines don't necessarily know who's skiing on a flight to Geneva & the ferry operators certainly don't. Can they really get data from all of the hotels in the Alps on how many brits are staying?

I'm sure the recession has bitten and many of us are fed up with being ripped off in French resorts.

They may well know that fewer of us booked with the tour operators.