Independent travel spurs wintersports holidays growth

Tuesday, 29 Oct, 2007 0

Independent travellers are spurring growth in the winter sports market at a time when tour operators are seeing only marginal increases.

The Ski Club of Great Britain’s seventh annual Snowsports Analysis shows an over rise of 3.4% year on year to more than 1.31 million people taking wintersports holidays from the UK.

While growth in the tour operator market was 1.7% year on year, the independent sector grew by more than five times as much, rising 9.7%.

The annual research report found that the average cost of a snowsports holiday in 2006/07 was £648.

The number of skiers and snowboarders taking weekend breaks has risen by 2% and now accounts for 7% of the total.

But the seven-day holiday continues to dominate, with 75% of people skiing or boarding for a week. In line with both these findings is that

The number of people booking their holiday over the internet has risen by 3% as operators and transport companies offer more sophisticated online booking facilities and the internet is used as a holiday research tool.

France remains the top destination accounting for 43% of the market. But Andorra lost market share by 2% and Italy and Austria by 1%.

Ski Club CEO Caroline Stuart-Taylor said: “We are not surprised the market has risen again as many people are looking for more from their holiday, and skiing or boarding fits the bill perfectly.

“It seems as though people are taking more than one snowsports holiday a year and hitting the slopes for a weekend break as well as skiing for a week.

“The internet and no-frills airlines will have helped this, but at the same time the tour operator market continues to perform well.

“We have already seen snow falling in both Europe and North America this year, so the industry is looking forward to a good snow season.”

by Phil Davies

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Phil Davies

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