Inghams Ski charter to Bergen ‘will make big difference’, say agents

Travel agents have welcomed a new Inghams Ski charter from Gatwick to Bergen which offers more opportunities for a range of winter sports holiday sales.

 

The weekly flights to Bergen, which start on December 21, offers snowsports enthusiasts a choice of resorts in Voss, Myrkdalen and Geilo.

 

Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast during a trip to the region, John Sullivan, Advantage Travel Partnership’s commercial director, hailed the “stunning scenery…great snow” and “relatively short” transfers.

 

 

 

“I think Norway has got a really good future for skiing,” he commented.

 

“The people are friendly and welcoming; the service has been great. It is a really good option. Fantastic.”

 

Nick Edwards, managing director at Snowfinders, also praised the hospitality, saying the region offered “great family resorts, good for beginners, early intermediates, and lots of off-piste for more advanced [skiers]”.

 

“We will push this, that charter will make a big difference,” he said.

 

Simon Hoskyns, co-owner of Alpine Answers, agreed the quality has been “amazing”, with “super” conditions on the pistes and hospitable staff.

 

Richard Sinclair, Sno Group chief executive, noted the high cost of living in Norway but offered this advice: “If you are really looking to keep the cost down, maybe go half board.

 

“You can self-cater for a great price here, but what you don’t want to do is to eat out.”

 

Gary Lewis, chief executive of The Travel Network Group,said the region would appeal to the family market, noting: “There is a real opportunity for the specialist tour operators in ski to get travel agents more aware and more engaged, and this would be the perfect place for them to get engaged with fantastic facilities.”

 

John Mansell, managing director at Inghams, said the area has been on the company’s radar “for a while” as part of its “Future Ski 3.0” strategy to offer higher or more northerly resorts as the climate crisis hits snowfall on the lower slopes.

 

Commenting on resorts served by the Bergen charter, he said: “They have very good ski guides and instructors, and they’re getting a lot of people who want to perfect their skills on these lovely blue and red runs.”

Inghams is also keen to support agents of all types to find the right customer for the right resort, he continued.

 

“We try to train as much as we can. We’ve got a very good trade sales team, and we are always trying to help the agents get customers to where they need to go,” he said.

 

“There is a number of ski specialist agents who know our programme as well as we do, but then we’ve got the high street agents and some of the homeworkers.

 

“We are seeing more of those understanding our business, and it’s not necessarily understanding the destination, but understanding they can talk to us and find the right [place].”

 

Trevor De Villiers, chief executive of Norway Home of Skiing, the international sales and marketing arm for the destination, said he had approached Inghams about a year ago to talk about featuring the region because “the time is right”.

 

“It is one of Norway’s most famous ski resorts, and it’s also the activity centre of Norway, with very extreme sports in the summer months, [such as] skydiving,” he said.

 

“Norway is now very in vogue in the UK. We are seeing massive growth out of the UK for Norway.

 

“Primarily that is because of snow conditions…and the kroner is quite weak at the moment.”

 

He highlighted how the flight time was just an hour and 45 minutes from Gatwick and the transfers from Bergen are not long – and can be done by train in an hour and a half.

 

“The UK has overtaken our Swedish and our Danish traffic,” he said, adding that about 45-50,000 people from the UK visit each year.

 

Another attraction is the chance to visit the fjords during a ski holiday, or enjoy other activities such as hunting the northern lights or husky sledding.

 

“It is an all-round winter holiday, a winter wonderland experience,” he continued.

 

“Norway is the richest country in the world. The standard is very high, 70% of population drive electric cars…so the standard of accommodation is always going to be very high.

 

“And price-wise, it is very similar to the rest of Europe.

 

“When you buy beers or alcohol in bars, it’s expensive. But if you go down to the wine shops in town, it’s the same prices as the UK.”

 

He said the charter service with Inghams could expand to other airports too, with Edinburgh and Manchester in his sights.

 

“We are very seriously eyeing up the Scottish market, because we know the Scots like Norway a lot,” he added.

 

Pictured: Train from Bergen to Voss, by Moobatto/Shutterstock

 

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