UK Skier Numbers Drop for Third Season In A Row Says Industry Study
UK Skier Numbers Drop for Third Season In A Row Says Industry Study
Published : 12-Jul-2011 01:54
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/
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