Every season, the Ski Club of Great Britain undertakes two consumer research surveys, one in October to gauge what people are aiming to do for the season, and one in May to gauge what people actually ended up doing.
The surveys are critical bits of information for the UK outbound travel trade, showcasing when, where and how much British skiers ski each season, as well as why they don’t ski, what’s influencing their choice of resort, and where they would really really love to ski.
This year’s pair of surveys are really interesting, as 2023/24 is the first “normal” season since the COVID-19 pandemic, where skier numbers were close enough to 2018/19’s data to draw parallels with what a normal ski season should look like. For reference, numbers of British skiers, at 1.8 millions, is down roughly 5% on pre-COVID, compared to a 20% loss on pre-COVID numbers last year.
So what are some of the biggest highlights from May’s consumer research survey? Stay tuned as we deep dive into 4 of the biggest takeaways from the Ski Club’s end of season consumer research survey.
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France: C’est la Vie
France remains the most popular destination for British skiers. That isn’t news in and of itself; it cannot be overstated the degree to which Brits love France and love skiing in France. Each year, there are 17 million visits to France (for all activities, not just skiing), according to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
From a skiing point of view, too, it is really easy to see why it is so popular. French skiing boomed in the 1980s, right when Britain became ski-mad, and as a result there is a huge infrastructure in place almost exclusively to support this continuing wave. Chalets, tour operators, resorts and seasonnaire communities are all key reasons why France remains popular for British skiers.
But the big takeaway here is that the percentage of British skiers skiing in France has risen, both year-on-year from last year and compared to pre-COVID. Pre-pandemic, 57% of British skiers enjoyed tartiflette and Folie Douce each year; by 2022/23, this had dropped to around half, with 51% heading to France. Perhaps some lingering resentment as to how the French had reacted to Brits during previous COVID seasons, as well as increases in the cost of skiing, saw people looking for alternative destinations such as Austria and Italy.
But France is back, baby. 59% of British skiers skied in France last year, representing around a million skiers (from a total of 1.8 million). The allure, simplicity, and in many ways familiarity of skiing in France seems to be attracting Brits back to the slopes in record numbers.
The Collapse of the Traditional Tour Operator Market
The British skiing holiday is built on the foundations of the package holiday. Mallorca crawled so Morzine could run. But for so many of us, it’s so easy just to throw some money at a company and let them sort it all for you; flights, accommodation, transfers, ski hire, lessons. It is, in many ways, the perfect way to destress on perhaps your only week on snow each year.
But tour ops have had a torrid time of it recently. COVID-19 shut down a season and a half of skiing in Europe. The cost of “living” has impacted business and companies too, and the resultant price rises have made it difficult for them to compete, especially on price which has always been a key selling point. Combined with the impacts of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU on the labour market, this has been heavyweight blow after heavyweight blow which has left the sector reeling.
And the proof is in the pudding. Tour operator bookings represented a whopping 63% of the UK market pre pandemic. Now? 43%. That’s a twenty point swing over the course of only a handful of years.
It’s difficult to tell which came first, the drop off in numbers of the shrinking size of the tour op sector, but with Inghams selling off all their chalets over this summer and several big names going under before the end of the 2023/24 season, things are not looking great for the tour op market.
N.B. these numbers should be taken with a pinch of salt, as SCGB has confirmed some inconsistencies with methodology on this question – respondees’ awareness of the definition of a tour op seems to vary, meaning that there is probably some margin of error in these numbers.
Size Does Matter (ish)
The two biggest factors affecting choice of ski area are size and altitude.
There is, I believe, an unstated link between these two, which may seem quite obvious: snow.
The past two seasons have seen resorts really struggle with snowfall, as climate change has completely turned seasons upside down. There has been great hullabaloo in the press as seasons and holidays have been ruined by a completely lack of snow. This hasn’t quite been the case, and indeed I’ve fielded a number of calls with press hacks trying to talk them down from the ledge of “doomed” ski holidays. Yes, resorts below 2,000m elevation have really struggled in recent years. But those above 2,000m, which covers most of the big hitters in France, have had a cracking time of it. Therefore it’s not really a surprise that elevation has become a key factor in resort choice.
What about size of ski area? I think there is a key argument that Brits love to ski, and want to tick off as many miles as they can on the corduroy. But I mentioned above that 2,000m covers “almost all” of the “big hitters”. But what about the others? The not-very-big-hitters or the big hitters that lie below this benchmark?
Well, most resorts these days are linked to hundreds of miles of pistes in other resorts: Morzine to Avoriaz and the rest of the Portes du Soleil; Samoens to Flaine and the Grand Massif; St Martin du Belleville to Val Thorens, Meribel and the Three Valleys. Therefore, the size of the resort allows you access to other, higher slopes, allowing you to ski even if snow is poor in your chosen resort.
The Ski Club doesn’t state the numbers selecting size and elevation, but it does compare these with last years and pre-COVID bars, and they are significantly up on both.
No One Takes the Train
This one is legitimately sad, both from a more overarching perspective and from a personal view as someone who loves to take the train.
Coming off the back of the COVID-19 pandemic, people were really keen to switch from flying to train travel for their skiing holidays. Something about the crowded inhumanity of flying as well as the sector’s tremendous carbon footprint meant people were actively looking at taking the train to go skiing.
Pre-COVID-19, 6% of British skiers took the train, around 100,000 people based on 2023/24 numbers. Immediately post-COVID, between 10 and 15% of British skiers aid they wanted to travel by train, however by 2022/23 only 3% of the market took the train, and this season this had fallen even further to 2%.
Admittedly, there’s a few things that have to fall into place to make taking the train the cheap and attractive proposition for the average skier that proponents advocate. I’ve actually gotten myself into trouble with some of these advocates, as I believe that these numbers won’t be bumped higher until it’s made easier for the average Joe.
But if the stars do align for you, then please please please consider taking the train. It’s different, it’s relaxing, it’s a far better space to sit back and work or just … stop … for a little while, and can get you to the heart of your favourite resorts across Europe.
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