Earlier this month, we attended LISTEX online, organised by the Mountain Trade Network. During the event, The Ski Club of Great Britain presented their latest consumer research.

Here are seven quick takeaways from that report…

Book early

Almost 1/4 of people have already booked their ski trip for next winter. Most of these will be for key dates such as February half term, Christmas and New Year, with chalet companies, in particular, reporting strong bookings for these dates.

More people travel to France

The Ski Club research shows that France remains the most popular destination for British skiers, followed by Austria and Italy.

It’s important to note that the percentages shown do not indicate market share. The totals add up to 129%, which suggests that 29% of skier and snowboarders travelled to more than one country, although this data does not tell us how many trips they took.

Short breaks are less common

Although these figures do not show the absolute shares of ‘length of holiday’ (as the percentages add up to 116%), we can conclude that people are more likely to be going on a week’s ski trip and less likely to be going on a short break than they were before Covid.

Possibly you could argue that this is a ‘cost of living’ issue and that short break ski trips are being cut out.

Skiing doesn’t have to expensive (but it can be)

The survey suggests that skiing doesn’t have to be (that) expensive, with 26% of people reporting that their holiday cost £1000 or less per person.

On the other hand, one in ten people (11%) were spending more than £3000 per person.

[The percentages on this slide add up to 114%, so I have adjusted proportionally.]

Most people have been to the Alps ‘out of season’

If 39% of people have not been to the Alps in spring, summer or autumn (as shown below), then we can conclude that 61% of people have visited during those seasons.

Adjusting the data to reflect this, we can conclude that 30% of people have been to the Alps in summer, 14% have visited in spring, and 12% in autumn.

Resorts’ environmental policies are increasingly important

More than half (53%) of consumers are significantly or very significantly influenced by a resort’s environmental policy when choosing a destination.

Bigger is better (as long as it doesn’t cost too much)

There’s a reason that resorts like to link up with other resorts: it’s so they can claim a bigger ski area. And that affects whether people want to visit.

Despite the fact that most holidaymakers will never ski close to all of the available pistes, there’s a comfort in the knowledge that they are there if you need them.

(Just make sure it’s not too expensive.)