Thanks to the credit crunch skiing reservations decreased this winter.
This is even with excellent pre season reservations coupled with fantastic snow conditions.
These drops in numbers follows on from five years of sequential growth within the skiing industry, and the number of holidaymakers shrunk from 1.05 million in 2008/9 to 850000 last season.
This is partly due to vacationers giving the season a miss, while additional vacationers who’d commonly take 2 skiing trips, only took the one.
Sales for the independent travel sector fell by 15% with some low priced airlines slashing the number of their routes to certain destinations.
Some tour operators also saw the numbers going down by 15%.
All the same, the top six companies share of the market stayed at 73% and the French Alps carried on as the top ski destination with about 37% of holidays.
Because of this many operators lowered the amount of luxury chalets they rent this coming winter.
The catered chalet markets will see a a drop in vacationers due to the fact that a ski chalet incurs more costs with regards to employees and rental if it is unoccupied.
It remains unlikely we shall benefit from the type of special offers that were on the market last winter.
Although costs are expected to rise, prices probably won’t rise a lot.
The 2009/10 winter doubtless presents serious problems for the ski industry which is affected by the outcomes of the depression, exchange rate pressures, high fuel costs and high fixed running costs for ski holiday companies.