Less than 14 days to go

Yes, less than 14 days to go before the Magic Pass becomes available to buy for 2019-2020. Like me, many of us are still enjoying riding on our 2018-2019 Magic Pass, so why the excitement?

Well, if the first two seasons of the Magic Pass are anything to go by, there will be huge discounts when the offer is first made available. So much so that the pass costs rather less than a weeks pass for one resort. Except the Magic Pass lasts all season, and now includes summer attractions. And it is not for just one resort, but over 30.

That’s not too shabby, and there are some internationally renowned resorts such as Villars-Gryon and Crans-Montana amongst the resorts covered plus some wonderful little-known gems. For residents or frequent visitors to Romande, it is an amazing offer, and not surprisingly has been extremely popular.

One criticism has been the lack of high-altitude resorts. Crans-Montana is high and, despite being South-facing, has a long season and good snow conditions late in the season. This has led the operator of Crans-Montana – always known for brinkmanship – to threaten to pull out of the scheme. St-Luc/Chandolin is also high, but rather difficult to get to (but well worth the effort, one of my favourite ski areas). Glacier3000 is also high, but adds a premium to the Magic Pass price, which I find hard to justify.

However for 2019/20 Saas-Fee will be joining the scheme. It already had a pretty good scheme covering just Saastal if you skiied there a lot. I had it for one season and it paid for itself in four days, but I did not renew as I only ended up using it for four days when I did have it. But it is a fabulous resort with a really good long season.

Also new for 2019/20 is Leukerbad, one of the best resorts around for families or for groups which include non-skiers owing to the extensive thermal baths in the resort and some very family-friendly restaurants. There is also a great area for beginners in the village and the very pleasant Torrent ski area above the village. The Swiss Pass will also apply to many summer activities in the resort.

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Ski Club of GB Annual Consumer Report

The Ski Club of Great Britain, the UK’s largest snowsports membership organisation, released findings from their annual consumer research report earlier this month.
Nic Oatridge skiing in St Moritz
The report, which is now in its fourth year, offers insight into the habits, intentions and attitudes of people who participate in snowsports, both here in the UK and abroad. It also offers some understanding of the state of the market and the likelihood for growth or decline in its size. It is the only independent piece of consumer research in the snowsports market of its kind.

From a pool of over 1.3 million email addresses the 2016 survey generated 17,270 responses of whom 2,432 were non-skiers. The responses seemed to skew towards older skiers, with the highest percentage age profile consisted of 34% aged between 50-59 years.

So what were the findings?

Has Brexit had an impact on skiers?

Brexit seems to have had little effect on the desire of skiers to continue pursuing their holidays. The survey responses were collected both before and after the referendum. Even amongst the ensuing uncertainty and exchange rate changes 65% of skiers said their skiing habits would remain the same over the next 3 years.
A further 28% said their activity would increase and only 7% said their activity would be decreasing – and much of this decrease was due to factors outside their control and mainly lifestyle changes. It seems that people who ski will continue to ski.
For the 2,300 non-skiers it was asked how likely they were to ski in the next three years. Over 5% gave a positive response (scoring 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale) – a strong potential pool of new skiers.
However, when the result was split between people responding before and after the referendum there was a major significant difference. Before the referendum 7.2% had scored their potential to ski as 9 or 10. After, if had dropped to 4.5%.

Loyalty to ski

Repeat purchase intention in the ski market is extremely high. Of the people who skied last season an impressive 97% say they will ski again in the coming season.
Skiing also remains hugely popular with 92% of those who go on a snow sport holiday choosing to ski, from these 39% choose off-piste, an increase of 3.7.% from 2015. Snowboarding accounts for some 12% of activity (down slightly on last year’s results). Although not recorded last year, 4% this year stated that they did freestyle skiing on their holiday.
Advocacy is found the more times you try; those people who skied 1 week or less recorded a Net Promoter Score* rating of 59, those that skied 2 to 5 weeks’ scored 75 and those over 5 weeks tended to score 80 and over.
Loyalty to specific markets also remains strong – 74% of people who skied in France on their last holiday say they will go there for their next ski holiday with 61% stating Austria and 49% choosing USA & Canada.

Solo travellers on the up

Although 38% of respondents had skied with their own or other families on their last ski break, 31% with friends, it was notable that 7% stated that they travelled alone, a significant 2% increase from the 2015 research.

Growing the market

The report identifies new skiers as those who have skied 1 week or less and this year saw 33% were aged 40-49. From these they tended to have gone with their families.
When asked where they were likely to ski, they are more inclined to visit Andorra and some of the Scandinavian markets and significantly less likely to visit France in comparison to all other skiers.
Lapsed skiers (people who hadn’t skied in the last three years) were asked how likely they were to come back into the market. Some 50% of the people who hadn’t been skiing in the last 3 seasons responded positively and 20% of these responded with a 9 or 10. This is increase on last year of some 2% – a positive indicator of potential demand in the market.

Do we ever stop?

This year we asked people about whether they had taken a break from skiing of more than three years with 66% v 34% stating yes and no. The largest age group that featured in the yes category were the 40-49 year olds, perhaps children, work commitments or the classic cash rich/time poor issue features. The biggest age group who have not taken a break of three years from skiing is the 60+. This age group are more likely to have retired, and to have more time and money to continue their skiing each year.
The most common reason for a break has been taken was children. On top of this ‘other commitments’ and ‘costs’ as well as being at university also figure – but children remain the major issue.
However, what brought people back was their children, a love of skiing as well as increasing affluence and time. Skiing with friends and families is also often a great motivator too.

The customer journey

Although skiers enjoy skiing, the Net Promoter Score* rating across the customer journey highlights some concerns that continue in the market. The journey to get to a resort continues to be highlighted as not an enjoyable experience. Airline and airports are under-performing compared to the rest of the experience.

When do customers book?

When it comes to booking holidays 64% are booking 3 months or more before they travel and only 13% booking less than a month before their trip. When broken down into the under and over 30’s market, 36% of the latter book 6 months or more before they travel but interestingly there isn’t a significant difference for the under 30’s.

Spending habits?

Spend per head on travel, accommodation, ski passes, equipment and ski school remains fairly consistent on last year with 25% of respondents spending between £750-£1,000 per person. A slightly increase of 2.3% shows for those now spending more than £1,500 per person. Not surprisingly, when broken down 31% of under 30’s will spend around £500-£750 compared to 22% over this age.
New skiers will also spend significantly less, with 28% spending less than £500 per head compared with 19% of all over skiers

Choosing a resort

Once again, guaranteed snow is the number factor when choosing a resort, the size of the ski area and quality of accommodation make the top three. Interestingly, how busy the slopes are has risen but price still squeezes into the five most important factors. For the under 30’s market, price moves up to number 3 but quality of accommodation drops to a ranking of 5. Quality of après ski ranks in 6 rather than 12th for the rest of the market.
Winter sports in Switzerland
Preparing for a ski holiday

This year respondents were asked how they prepared for their ski holiday with 80% taking part in general fitness activities before they depart and 37% participating in other sports. Cycling came out as the clear favourite (although slightly less for the under 30’s market) but other popular sports also included swimming, tennis, golf, and squash, climbing and going to the gym
One fifth also visit an artificial slope in preparation. Interestingly it is the under 30’s market, and those who are often less experienced, who will visit an indoor ski slope.

Taking things into your own hands

The independent market – though a challenge to quantify accurately – and classed in this report as those who book elements of their ski holiday themselves rather than as a package seems to be holding steady. Last year it was identified that 33% of the market book independently – this year that figure was 34%.
There is a tendency for the 40-49 year olds to favour booking independently compared to those who are 60 and older who prefer to book with ski companies.
One of the key interesting trends that anchors the independent market is flexibility. Independent travellers are far likely less to book a standard 7 day break with 48% of people doing so compared to 78% who booked with a ski company.

Buying in UK store remains favourite but online is catching on

The UK ski & snowboard equipment store retailers remain the favourite purchase channel for ski equipment although this figure has been slipping downward across the last 2 years with 53% choosing to buy from a store in 2015 and 48% in 2016. Online purchase has increased once again by 4%.
What was highlighted was the discontentment of respondents purchasing either snow sport equipment or clothing in a resort with a very low Net Promoter Score* rating of -15 and -18 respectively.

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New for the 2016/17 Swiss Ski Season

Another ski season is not far away, and many Swiss resorts have been busy upgrading their facilities ready for season 2016/17.

In Zermatt the ancient gondola below the Rothorn from Gant to Blauherd is being replaced by a six-seat chairlift.
Saas-Fee in Saastal
In Saas-Fee the equally ancient gondola in the Spielboden sector is being replaced by a faster 10-seater gondola.

Andermatt continues its aggressive program of expansion. This season two T-bars will be replaced by six-seater chairlifts. In the following two seasons an additional two six-seater chairlifts and an eight-seater gondola will link the Nätschen area of Andermatt to Sedrun and open up 26km of new piste. Sedrun itself replaces a t-bar with a chairlift, a trend across many Alpine resorts.

Most people know Klosters for the Parsenn area, but the seperate Madrisa area is popular with families. Here an innovative six-seater chairlift, “Schaffürggli”, is being installed, the first of its kind in Switzerland. It features a laser scanner that uses hydraulics to adjust the height of the seat, making it much easier for children to get on and off. The chairlift will also have heated seats and can take wheelchair users up the mountain.

New lifts and replacement lifts are planned for a number of other resorts including Flumserberg, The Four Valleys, Corvatsch, Crans-Montana, Pizol, Les Diablerets, Villars-Gryon, Grüsch-Danusa and Val Müstair.

I’ve often thought it would be fun to have a drone film my descent. It would also be useful to give visitors to swisswintersports.co.uk an idea of what to expect. Well Verbier got there first and is offering Europe’s first self-tracking drones. The drones follow you on the slopes using Bluetooth and a GPS-enabled Smartphone App and Téléverbier rents them out the Hexo+ drones for CHF400 per day or CHF250 for a half day, providing assistance and a video at the end of the day.

All of the major airports in Switzerland lie just outside the Alps, but Swiss International Airlines now plan to provide a scheduled service between Sion and London, subject to a number of test flights. Sion Airport is in the heart of the Swiss Alps, and so close to the slopes you can actually see planes take off and landing from the pistes of several nearby resorts, including Verbier and Nendaz. Sion has been used for civilian flights for some time, but the last scheduled service from the UK was withdrawn a few years ago and the military will be withdrawing from using it from next year. The director of Sion airport, Aline Bovier-Gantzer says that “The initiative for the new flight is due to a collaboration with the Swiss tourism industry: Valais is already a favourite destination of British tourists during the winter months thanks to its proximity to some of Switzerland’s most popular ski resorts.”

Of course, if you fly to Switzerland, independent travellers can easily get to their resorts using the fabulous transport infrastructure available without having to resort to lengthy, uncomfortable coach transfers. You can also make the entire trip from many European cities directly by train, including London with the Eurostar ski train, booking for which is now open.
Snowboarders in the Alps
Just outside Switzerland’s borders but very popular with Swiss skiers is the Arlberg area in Austria. I remember that once you could get round the circuit that includes St Anton, Lech and Zürs, but for some years this has not been the case. Now a new gondola is scheduled to open that will link Zürs and Stuben to create the largest ski area in Austria, one of four new lifts that will be built in Ski Alberg over the summer. For the 2016/17 season this means Ski Arlberg will total 305km piste served by 87 lifts, fully linking St Anton, Stuben, St Christoph, Lech, Zürs, Schröcken and Warth.

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Ski for Cancer

Arctic Ski RaceAs a keen skier and a cancer survivor, I admire the efforts of Ski 4 Cancer, a charity that provides Alpine respite days and short-breaks for families affected by cancer. Cancer has been affecting a lot of people recently, some of them even need home care from https://homecareassistance.com/burlingame/. They also make grants to relevant care institutions and support research into the positive effects of skiing to prevent cancer and assist in recovery.

Anyway, over this last weekend Olympic skier Chemmy Alcott, Adam Libbey, Chris Brooks, Max Wilcocks and Richard Gibbs in a team called Arctic V took part in what is dubbed the ‘World’s Toughest Ski Race’ in aid of Ski 4 Cancer, sponsored by Columbus Direct. The team hope to raise £30,000 for Ski 4 Cancer, and you can make a donation via Justgiving.
Cross country skiing in the Arctic Challenge
The Arctic Circle Race as it is officially known, is an annual three day competition involving 160 kilometers of cross-country skiing in Greenland, with competitors camping in the back country as part of the event in temperatures as low as -35 degrees Centigrade. In keeping with being in a Green land, the race organisers pride themselves on leaving the race site exactly as they found it.Race 2015
And how did it go? Well the race was called off after two days when very high winds and blizzard conditions descended on Greenland. It was always about the taking part and Chemmy reflected afterwards “Rest, Recovery & Reflection. We conquered the Worlds Toughest Ski race which was both brutal and brilliant at the same time. Please donate to our fantastic charity”.Chemmy Alcott
You have been asked nicely – go to Justgiving or Ski4Cancer’s web site.

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