New research suggests increase in interest in train travel to ski resorts

Research carried out by ski company Iglu Ski into the popularity of train travel has revealed the number of skiers interested in getting the train to the Alps increased by 35% from January 2020 to January 2024.

An analysis of Google Trends shows the trend in searches for 'train to the Alps' has been increasing over the last 20 years (excluding Covid), with interest in January 2024 exceeding January 2023 by about 24%.



As the interest around the ski train increases, Iglu Ski also looked into why more skiers should be choosing the ski train for their journey to the Alps.

They concluded that it's a combination of cost, comfort, ease of travel and the lower carbon cost.

Their analysis of multiple ski holiday packages to France showed that when ski carriage and airport parking was included train travel was often less expensive.

More interesting for taller travellers is that if you travel by train, you'll get up to 25% percent more leg room, as well as wider seats, tables and a café that you can visit during the journey.

Definitely not wanting to appear negative on this research, but I saw some Ski Club of GB research a year or so back saying interest in going on ski holidays by train was huge, but at the end of last season they published more research seeing the numbers actually doing it remained small (might even have gone down). Hopefully all the positivity on train travel and effort by ski travel companies will translate into someone publishing a report showing numbers actually booking ski holidays by rail are going up. Or maybe they already have and I missed it?

Sadly I think this is related to the 'say-do' gap that we often see with sustainability issues. People are more likely to talk about making changes, but less likely to do them...

FYI I tried the 'do' bit of the Say-Do: a 16-hour bus ride from Kent to Grindelwald. Train sounds glorious by comparison.