Iglu sold to Flight Centres in £100m Deal
Flight Centre Travel has completed the acquisition of the UK-based online cruise and ski specialist Iglu, in a deal worth up to £100 million plus performance-related earnout. Iglu was founded in 1998 by Richard Downs and has grown into one of Europe’s leading online retailers for cruise and ski holidays. According to an statement made...
The sad demise of the catered chalet ski holiday
Looking through a recent survey from Le Ski, I was struck by one stat in particular. While it was encouraging to read that the number of UK skiers and snowboarders is predicted to grow by 14% in winter 2023/24, the fact that only 13% stay in catered chalets highlighted how much the market has changed....
New survey shows number of UK seasonal staff down by 69%
The cost of obtaining visas, work permits and other paperwork after Brexit has been blamed for a huge decrease in British seasonal staff working in the EU. A new survey – ‘Unlocking Travel’s Potential: The importance of UK-EU mobility for jobs and growth’ – commissioned by Seasonal Businesses in Travel (SBiT) in conjunction with ABTA...
‘Parrots in the Snow: the rise and fall of Bladon Lines’ – article in ‘Ski+Board’ magazine
Iain’s article ‘Parrots in the Snow: the rise and fall of Bladon Lines‘ has now been published in ‘Ski+Board’ magazine. It’s also now available as a special episode of The Ski Podcast My first experience of working in the ski industry came 35 years ago when I went to Chatel in the Portes du Soleil...
SkiYodl investment looks overvalued
According to a press release earlier this week, ski holiday booking platform SkiYodl is currently aiming to raise £1.5 million in crowdfunding investment. In January 2021, the company used Crowdcube to raise £770,000 from 450 investors. Founder previously worked in Verbier Founder Oli Dannatt previously worked as a ski instructor for Richard Branson in Verbier....
Exclusive: Crystal Ski may not operate any ski holidays this winter
Crystal generated a good amount of PR when they announced this week that they will be giving customers free Covid19 insurance. However, every news outlet reporting this development appear to have simply ‘copy and pasted’ the press release without reading it. Crystal may not operate any ski holidays this winter While the ‘Crystal Holiday Promise’...