Thousands of skiing holidays are being discounted heavily leaving specialist ski operators vulnerable.
With New Year landing on a weekend this year, skiers are unwilling to travel on those days and the traditionally busy New Year week has been left unsold.
Many schools are also returning as early as 3 January, preventing the family market holidaying a few days after Christmas and the initial high New Year prices have led skiers to look for cheaper alternatives.
Richard Sinclair at ski specialist sno, said: "While skiers are benefitting from ever more eye watering discounts, it's the smaller indie ski companies who are suffering. The big boys can afford to make a loss for a few years but, with small business struggling to secure borrowing, many small ski firms are finding things very hard.
“Prices are the lowest we’ve ever seen them and you can currently pick up an early January ski holiday for what were previously only available as ‘last minute’ prices.
“The take-home for customers though is that these crazy prices are getting noticed and are selling fast. Its simple supply and demand – when these prices reduce supply, these prices will have to go."
Some ski operators had switched departure dates in a bid to avoid the problem but many, including Crystal and Inghams, are now discounting by as much as 40%.
Resorts that traditionally fly on Saturday have been affected like France, Austria and Switzerland while Andorra, which has packages starting Sunday, 26 December have been snapped up as more affordable.
David Tonks, ski and activity manager at agency Ski-Direct, part of Midlands Co-op Travel, said “Prices have been heavily discounted. The main reason is the fact that people do not want to go away on the 31 December as they may arrive in resort quite late to fully enjoy the New Year.
"Also, they come back later in January than normal and this has an effect with schooling.
“New Year is the most expensive time along with Feb Half Term and the prices were very high of course. Some people have opted to go at other times due to economic reasons.”
By Diane Evans
