'Bumper' late season snow boosts ski sector ahead of Easter
Significant late season snowfall at popular ski resorts in the Alps this month has helped to give the winter sports sector a welcome influx of last-minute Easter bookings.
With the benefit of an earlier Easter this year, heavy mid-March snow helped get bookings flowing again after an unseasonably warm February led to consumer media headlines about barren and snowless ski resorts.
Most in the industry emphasise how strong early snowfall created a good snow base at major European alpine resorts, ensuring clients’ experiences have not been impacted by the higher than usual temperatures.
Diane Palumbo, sales and marketing director at Skiworld, told TTG Easter had sold well in the early part of the booking cycle, but sales had slowed while so-called “snow watchers” bided their time and kept their eyes on the weather forecasts.
"Ahead of time, Easter sold very well. However, bookings slowed as I think people were waiting for the snow," said Palumbo. "Phones were busy again last week with another half a metre due. The epic early season base has hardly been impacted by intermittent rises in temperature, and thankfully it’s been regularly topped up."
It has been a similar experience for Club Med, with “bumper” snowfall in March helping fuel a 23% year-on-year rise in last-minute bookings for March and April departures to European resorts.
"Our best-selling resorts for this timeframe are Val d’Isere, Tignes and La Rosiere – all high-altitude ski domains where there are ample slopes with a solid base of snow,” said Nicolas Bresch, Club Med managing director UK, Ireland and Nordics.
Specialist agency Iglu Ski also reported "higher than average" demand for Easter with resorts such as Val Thorens, La Plagne and St Anton proving particularly popular.
Rupert Longsdon, from Oxford Ski Company, added: “Easter is looking fantastic, fuelled by some incredible late-season conditions which have been better than any in recent memory.
"Being a school holiday period, we always see a strong focus on family-friendly resorts such as Val d’Isere, Tignes, Lech and Crans-Montana.”
Season review
While hopes are high for a strong finish to the current ski season through Easter and the early weeks of April, most specialists have already enjoyed a successful year.
Philip Wright, head of sales and service at Iglu Ski, said: ‘Like the rest of the industry, we wondered if we would exceed last season’s bookings, thinking the big increase after Covid could have been a one-off.
"It’s good to see even more skiers departing this year, showing double-digit growth. Good-value high resorts in Italy, such as Cervinia and Courmayeur, have fared well together with chalets across the Alps.”
Italy has also sold well for Travel Counsellors’ Aaron Caddell, who specialises in ski holidays. Other strong performers have included Austria, Bulgaria and a “smattering” of Romania. “French and Swiss prices have been a deterrent unless booked during a two-for-one lift pass offer, for example,” added Caddell.
Another specialist, Ski Solutions, has enjoyed a “robust” 2023/24 season, with passenger numbers up by 10% on last winter. "Off the back of a more challenging season for snowfall last year, we have seen growth in high-altitude and snow-sure destinations,” said senior marketing manager Rebecca Pascual.
Palumbo noted the “strength of early bookings” for this season, which largely came in between December 2022 and June 2023. “This was across all accommodation types and destinations, but particularly chalets," she said. "Anecdotally, they wanted to book high resorts, and knew how much they were going to spend to help them budget."
The operator has also seen impressive growth for Canada and Italy, with “double figure” percentage rises for both destinations this winter.
Longsdon added: “We’ve seen an increase in last-minute bookings as clients wait to see how conditions are faring, but this has not actually changed the usual flow of departures through the season.”
Next year’s prospects
While it’s early days to talk about the 2024/25 ski season, good late season snow in the previous year is always likely to provide a tailwind for bookings.
"As usual, we are seeing a lot of families booking all-inclusive trips now to take advantage of the value-for-money and ease of such holidays,” said Wright.
“We welcome the new [Crystal Ski] charter to Norway from Manchester and expect strong bookings on that route.”
Caddell added: “The trend for next year so far has been to book the higher snow-sure resorts, with Tignes a major winner.”
Meanwhile, Pascual said: “Poor early snow in winter 2022/23 impacted early bookings for Christmas 2023, but the early snow conditions this winter were great, so we’re predicting that early demand for Christmas will return for next winter.”
While everybody wants these early bookings for next season, there’s still plenty of potential business to be had in the final weeks of this winter – providing the weather gods play ball, of course.
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