Survey Finds More British Skiers Book Early, Stay Fit, Take Train…
Survey Finds More British Skiers Book Early, Stay Fit, Take Train…
Published : 13-Nov-2023 03:54
The Ski Club of Great Britain has released the results of its 2023 State of the UK Snowsports Market survey, conducted during September and October 2023, with results extrapolated from 1,100 responses from UK skiers across a wide demographic of over 1 million. The survey compares results from the last survey a year ago and found that:
12% of respondents intend to take the train this winter, compared to only 2% taking the train last season. Interestingly 92% say that more train services and lower costs would be the most likely factors in encouraging them to take the train in the future.
UK skiers are getting fitter compared to pre-Covid years when 15% of respondents admitted doing no exercise between ski seasons, this has dropped to only 10%. The most popular off-snow activities to prepare for skiing are cycling and hiking.
39% of respondents say they intend to book two holidays for this winter, up from 33% last year.
40% saying the reason why they didn't book a skiing holiday last season was due to cost, but a lucky 20% said cost is not an issue for them at all.
55% of skiers are booking more than 6 months before departure compared to 35% pre-Covid.
Those making late bookings of less than a month are back up to 13% though, compared to 7% last year.
More people are planning to stay in apartments versus hotels for this winter with 28% saying they will book a self-catered apartment compared to 25% last winter.
But at the other end of the market 31% are saying they intend to stay in a 4* hotel this winter, last season only 23% said they did.
Skiers are also dreaming about the experiences they would like to have including heli-skiing and travelling to long haul destinations with Canada and Japan top of the bucket list destinations. But perhaps more realistically over 30% would like to try ski touring at some point, and almost 30% intend to ski tour this winter.
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