Natives is pleased to
deliver its end of season report on the State of the
Industry.
The Countries
North America finished
around 7% down - a result greeted within the industry
as 'not so bad'.
Europe does not seem to have fared so badly. Provisional
figures indicate growth in Switzerland of around 6%,
with both France and Austria sounding cautiously positive.
Italy did not have a good year however. Total numbers
are reported to have fallen by over 30% as the Italian
economy has suffered and inbound skiers have upgraded
to France and Austria. The boom years of the early
Nineties probably won't be back now until the next
recession (next season?!?).
The Operators
Early season bookings were disastrous for most British
tour operators. Although as bad as 30% down during
the summer this gradually improved as the season went
on.
By October we were reporting an 'improvement'
to just 18% down, but it was only once the snow had
fallen and the Millennium was out the way that the
industry showed a remarkable recovery.
Millennium Bug
According to Louise Newton from Crystal Holidays,
'the Millennium was diabolical, nobody went anywhere.'
The Millennium factor definitely affected sales, something
predicted as early as August
by Natives. In most cases over-optimistic pricing
was a key factor and many operators would love the
chance to go back and set their prices again.
As it was, very few operators were able to sell at
brochure price and some painfully heavy
discounting helped fill the remaining beds.
The lost week caused by Christmas Day and New Year's
Day falling on a Saturday also caused problems for
operators.
Rupert Hatfield from Simply Ski explained: 'We lost
a whole week at the beginning of the season and had
to play catch up from then.'
Strong End of Season
After a very healthy mid and late-season operators
were delighted as numbers picked up significantly.
Laurence Hicks from Inghams was very satisfied with
the winter's results. 'We ended up increasing sales
by 8-9%, thanks to our strong positioning in the market.'
Joyce Davidson from Lotus Supertravel also reported
a very successful season, with sales up 20%. 'We had
strong bookings from the very beginning, were fully
booked across the Millennium and rarely needed to
discount,' Joyce told us.
The strong snow at the end of the season certainly
benefited operators.
Louise Newton again: 'We were the only tour operator
with chartered flights through to May, so we were
able to take advantage of the late season sales. We
still had people travelling out on May 13!'
Predictions for 2000/2001
Most operators expect small to reasonable growth,
with a trend towards booking over the Internet. Both
Inghams and Crystal have already introduced online
booking.
Crystal have already recorded good early season sales
for 2001 and expect growth of about 10%.
Supertravel expect growth to continue for 2000/01
as well. Killington and Boston stopovers have been
added with 'early bookings already looking strong.'
Rupert Hatfield is another looking forward to an increase
in sales, possibly boosted by the introduction of
a new resort. 'I can't comment,' said Rupert, 'We're
keeping that under wraps until our new brochure comes
out towards the end of June.'
Ultimately growth in the industry will always be limited
by the number of new skiers and riders attracted to
the sport. Laurence Hicks sees this as the barrier
to longer term growth. 'The new snowdomes
opening in the UK may help increase numbers but the
massive fall in the schools market has not helped
our industry.'
Then again, fewer Billys
on the slopes? Maybe it's not so bad after all: The
State of the Industry is GOOD!
Thanks
to:
