| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 04/09/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 43 |
| Copyright: Other |
SKI UPDATE
Operators are hoping for a more successful winter season after millennium hype and a late Easter hit 1999/2000 business.
After a tough 1999/2000 season, which saw sales drop by 12% overall, ski operators are looking forward to a fruitful 2000/01, without a millennium to contend with.Crystal managing director Debbie Marshall noted that a strong pent-up demand from those who did not ski last year, combined with the development of new ski technology such as carvers, snowblades and twintips will lure people back to the slopes (see page 45).
The lack of millennium hype, plus the fact Christmas Day and New Year’s Day do not fall on Saturday this season – thus not affecting the main change-over day – saw all ski operators breathing a sigh of relief. Early signs are good, with Thomson, and Crystal up 6% and 8% year on year.
Neilson has revised the statement made earlier in the year of a market downturn of 15%, to one “slightly ahead” of 1998/99. Nevertheless, most have decided not to overstretch themselves and are operating at or near to 1998/99 capacity. The main threat this season is from another late Easter.
Neilson senior product manager Nina McMaster said:”It’s not as late as it was last year, thank goodness, but it is later than we’d like and it will have a small effect on sales.”
In terms of product, the stars this season are likely to be the snow-sure resorts of France and Austria, with Crystal, Thomson and Airtours all reporting strong early sales. In North America, Canadian resorts are responsible for the most growth (see page 44).
Surprising perhaps, is operators’ continued confidence in Italy, despite having suffered from two seasons of poor snow.
Inghams has reintroduced Passo Tonale, as well as adding Solda, and several resorts in Selva. New for Thomson is the small resort of Ovindoli in the Apennine mountains, and Crystal has four new club hotels in Cervinia, Sestriere and Bardonecchia.
Not that the host nation of the 2006 Winter Olympics has any room for complacency.
First Choice product group manager Cathy Rankin said: “Italy has to work hard now to fight decline, for example, by increasing its snowmaking capacity in the Milky Way ski area.”
Nevertheless, Italy features in First Choice’s Total Ski programme, which, by not offering premier resorts at peak times, aims to get beginners and ‘lapsed skiers’ back on to the slopes through low prices. Leading in at £299, the packages, based in France and Italy, include travel and accommodation costs, as well as equipment hire, lift-pass and tuition.
Also benefiting from increased brochure presence are Sweden and Norway, which joined forces last year to form the Ski Scandinavia marketing initiative.
Thomson has introduced Geilo and Beitost¿len in Norway, and Neilson has gone into Åre in Sweden.
Thomson product director Gareth Crump said:”The UK market for Scandinavia has been increasing over the years with skiers who don’t want another French factory-skiing holiday; more of a winter holiday where you can ski.”
Neilson’s Nina McMaster agreed, noting that while there was plenty to keep aficionados occupied solely with downhill skiing in Sweden, there would also be enough activities for a mixed group, including ice-fishing, cross-country skiing and husky dog-rides.
Despite the overall confidence for the season, skiers, perhaps more than any other group, have the potential to book over the Internet – the Crystal Ski Report found that 60% of the market has Internet access – and operators are reacting accordingly. Fending off threats from the likes of lastminute.com, iglu.com and completeskier.com, Inghams and Crystal have set up Web sites with bookable stock, and Crystal estimates that 15% of all ski holidays will be booked over the Internet – either by travel agents or the public direct – by 2005.
Agents worried about losing business to the Web should heed the advice of Inghams sales manager Laurence Hicks.
“The Internet is for clients who know almost exactly what they want, whereas a travel agent can give advice,” he said.
“There will always be the touch and feel client who wants to know all about the product, and this is where the traditional travel agent will score miles above any Web site.”
Successful sales then, perhaps more for skiing than other markets, depend on knowledge and high service standards.
On a high: operators are adding booking facilities to their Web sites as a recent survey showed 60% of the market has access to the Internet