Ski Industry Bucks Declining Booking Trends

The Global Economic Crisis has caused a severe downturn in the travel industry as people stay at home due to the looming threat of a UK recession -but skiers and snowboarders seem not to share the general mood, with bookings 10 percent up on this time last year.

This is in stark contrast to what is happening in the rest of the travel business, with bookings for winter sun holidays falling by as much as a third in October. The travel industry was braced for a catastrophe, but now large numbers of Britain’s 900,000 skiers and boarders are booking holidays in the Alps this winter, and latest figures show that bookings are up on the same period last year.

However, the number of people going to ski in North America has dropped substantially and there is little expectation that business will pick up.

One significant change to winter sports holidays caused by the current economic climate is the number of people planning to drive to the Alps. It takes eight hours to drive to the main resorts in the French Alps with motorway virtually the whole way. Leading to specialist chalet operators, that allow guests to make their own travel arrangements, being inundated with booking enquiries.