E 02 | ISSU 2013 NOV
Winter Sports Industry News
Le Ski’s battle over ski guiding in France rolls into another winter season 02
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November 2013 | Issue 02
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Le Ski’s Nick Morgan Talks Ski Guidin It’s this winter’s big issue and it could affect your business. Here’s where we’re at with ski guiding...
Rob Stewart Co-Editor As I walked up the steps to the very grand looking central London hotel for my meeting with Nick Morgan of Le Ski, I was greeted by a mass of paparazzi photographers with raised lenses, slowly drooping at the disappointment of my arrival rather than their expected prey. I knew Morgan had attracted some widespread publicity, but this seemed a little excessive for someone who’s simply taking on the French in order to provide ski hosting services for his chalet guests. The story has been raging on for some time now, ever since one of Morgan’s ”hosts” was pulled up by a gendarme on the slopes of Méribel. First accused of illicit ski teaching, but able to prove they were simply hosting, they found themselves out of the pan and into the fire. As it turned out, hosting chalet guests on the slopes was also a very naughty thing to do.
French spat that sucked in the École du Ski Français (ESF), who support the case but didn’t actually start it, and created a debate as to whether British tourists should choose other destinations for their snow holidays. All of this has certainly helped to put Le Ski, in the spotlight. But has that been a good thing or not? ”Our Facebook page Likes went right up directly after the verdict, which was good, if not a bit silly,” said Morgan. ”It’s common to blame foreigners for problems when the
slopes. ”Yes, true to a point, but in 2011 a word equivalent to ‘accompanying’ was added to this law, and this word is open to interpretation. That’s where the courts come in. But under European regulations you’re not allowed to make a restrictive practice law like that,” he says, confidently. So then I put it to him that we, the British, are simply being picked on. ”No,” says Morgan, ”we’re not being picked on,” suggesting that it’s the ESF in Méribel who think they’re being
"No, we're not being picked on, but the ESF instructors on the ground all think it’s bonkers to attack a business partner"
A local court case ensued and Morgan lost, ending any ski hosting in France mid-season by every chalet operator, with the exception of the few sneaky independents dressed up as guests.
economy is tough, but all the tour operators do is bring money in.” He continues, ”the local instructors think that our guests will ski with them because we can’t, but it’s just not the case.” Morgan points out that ski lessons and hosting are a completely different service.
News of the case reached far beyond the specialist ski publications and into the national media, sparking a new Anglo-
I asked him how he expected to win this case when the law in France seems quite clear about hosting skiers or snowboarders on the
picked on, as they have already claimed substantial damages for loss of earnings due to ”illegal” hosting, ”but the ESF instructors on the ground all think it’s bonkers to attack a business partner,” he adds. And when I ask how the industry will be impacted this winter by the current situation of not being able to offer a hosting service, Morgan is very vocal about the support he’s had
from the other major operators. ”Around 90% of the UK tour operator market have agreed not to provide hosting this winter in France. It’s unprecedented in terms of the support agreed between these companies.” I want to know if they are all helping to pay the bills and Morgan again talks with confidence. ”Firstly, we will win this case in the European courts, and secondly, we are in a strong position to fight it without impacting on our business.” But is there a genuine safety issue out there I ask? Unqualified members of staff are responsible for their clients on a mountain, surely that is out of step with where instructors are, or other professions? ”This case has not come about because of accidents, it can’t be dangerous for clients to ski with hosts, there’s no logic in that.” I point out that if a serious accident did happen with a ski host from another company during the case then it would look bad. ”Yes” says Morgan. ”It would.” So why will British snow sports tourists continue to holiday in the French Alps more than any other destination? What is the appeal of a chalet holiday in Courchevel, Val d’Isère or La Tania (where Le Ski operate)? Morgan, after 30 years in the business (Le Ski celebrated their 30th anniversary last winter) is clear. ”It’s because almost everything is prepaid and provided by the tour operator. They have a British host pick them up at Chambery airport,
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Issue 02 | November 2013
ng Le Ski chalet hosts and the other clients all speak the same language.” During the boom years between 2002 and 2008 there was a growth in independent chalet operators catering for the expanding budget airline routes, many of them have now fallen by
Don’t We Just Love A Long Cold Winter? for what’s already a crowded market, but perhaps there are some new operators out there that have other experiences? As I walked out of the swanky hotel to the click of cameras I was informed that the paparazzi were there for the premier of Rush, a film about
And From The ESF Simon Atkinson is Director of the ESF in La Rosière and we asked him for his personal opinion on the ski guiding ban. “French Law does stipulate anyone 'teaching, escorting or guiding people on the slopes' is doing so illegally without the appropriate qualifications. At the moment you could argue that the qualification, being the French Diploma or equivalent (BASI 4 or BASI 3 and 2 with test technique), is a little too much to demand to take people out on the slopes. But on the other hand to argue the point with a French court of law that a UK tour company should be allowed to take people out with no qualification whatsoever (as is the case with most tour companies) is probably a little bit exaggerated.”
the wayside. After 30 successful years, what advice could Morgan give any prospective operator? ”It’s very difficult to get into the ski business today. Getting properly bonded is expensive and you need a minimum of five chalets to make it work.” I guess I didn’t expect him to invite newcomers to provide competition
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Formula One in the 1970s, and the dual between the Austrian Nicky Lauder and the Brit James Hunt. Morgan is a free man, although just around the corner is perhaps the biggest reminder of conflict between France and England ever, Trafalgar Square, and I wondered if Morgan can pull off a Nelson-style victory or not.
Rob Stewart + Amie Postings Co-Editors As anyone who works in the snow sports industry knows, winter is never far away. In contrast to the rest of the population, we’re constantly wishing those long summer days away, longing for December when the lights switch on and the cameras start to roll. Any tour operator, retailer or marketing company involved in the snow sports industry started their winter in June. Brochures were printed, stock was purchased, recruitment finalised. By now, anything that hasn’t been done in preparation for the season should either be labelled as ”panic” or simply forgotten about. Our winter starts now, and we want everyone else to think in the same way. The ski and snowboard magazines are on the shelves, the temperature’s dropping, and you’re at a ski show. We can all sniff snow in the air and it gets us excited, it’s what we live for. All year we work hard doing our jobs, but we’re in this industry for one reason – we love being on snow.
The first edition of The Ski Trade was sent to thousands of trade members, and our dedicated industry website has been online for 6 weeks. We were writing about snow during the heat of the summer and we, like you, share in the excitement of what’s to come. The positive response to our launch issue was very encouraging indeed. Thanks to everyone who took the time to get in touch. We’ve got a features list as long as a pair of powder skis this winter, and we’re looking forward to sharing industry news and developments with you. Will this be another bumper snow year? Will we hear reports of high booking demand across the European Alps? Will more UK skiers decide to buy their own skis, rather than compromise on renting? Are we likely to see more car and train journeys to the Alps as the costs of flights rise? The Ski Trade will be monitoring the press releases, social media channels, and online forums for winter sports news and developments. Get in touch if you’d like to share your views, we’d love to hear them. rob@theskitrade.com amie@theskitrade.com
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November 2013 | Issue 02
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Be Social
How frequently do you update your social media?
Amie Postings Co-Editor Right now, two-thirds of your current and potential client base are tweeting, status updating and snapping pictures to share with their peers. They’re sharing likes and dislikes, feedback on restaurant experiences, and crucially, their winter holiday plans. How you choose to interact with them will depend on many factors, but according to our latest research, 98% of you can’t ignore the power of social media in your winter sports business.
View the full results at theskitrade.com 96% of the winter sports industry members questioned use Facebook, often multiple times a day, to interact with previous, current and future clients. Twitter was the second most popular social media site for the winter sports industry, followed by LinkedIn and YouTube. Creating general market awareness, rather than directly targeting new customers is the main aim of your social media strategy.
Multiple PER DAY
EVERY OTHER DAY
ONCE-A-WEEK
ONCE PER DAY
3 X PER WEEK
EVERY OTHER WEEK
In addition to interacting with previous, current and future customers through social media, 44% of winter sports businesses use their social media strategy to communicate with the media. 92% of those questioned believe that their social media activity has a direct impact on their business bottom line. Redbull’s social media strategy often wins ”best in show” awards. With over 40m fans on Facebook and 1.1m followers on Twitter, Red Bull dominates the world of social media in action sports. The Redbull-sponsored Art of Flight snowboard movie generated 10m trailer views from both within and outside the snow sports community, inspiring a whole new generation to try snowboarding. Social media messages at independent chalet operator Powder White add to the overall holiday experience believes Co-Founder Fraser EwartWhite. ”We use our social media platforms to share our hundreds of seasons of knowledge, as well as useful on the ground information from our teams in resort. Example posts include new airline launches, Eurostar ticket sales, weather and snow
conditions. We’re really focusing our energies on our social media channels this winter.” Phil Keith launched Snow Vole in 2012, having identified the need for a new social networking site for skiers and snowboarders. ”Social media is where the industry and skiing public can merge and share their passions instantly. Do social media well, and a business will have a 'friend' and potential client for life. Do it badly, and you'll watch the potential pot of clients dwindle.” Hardwear and outerwear manufacturers also play an important role in engaging the winter sports community. At Protest Boardwear, Verena Garner targets their market using channels that really matter to them. ”We want to be part of our customer’s lives and we want them to be part of ours. We share information on contests, events, our riders and their performance. We involve our followers in product development and we try to add valuable content every day. It’s all about balance.”
ONCE-A-MONTH
interesting to build brand loyalty and trust. Be the experts on your resort, your products or your industry sector, then your market will follow you. Be tribal. 500 genuinely meaningful followers who interact with your messages are significantly more effective than 5000 ”paid for” or forced followers. Contrary to popular belief, social media isn’t always a popularity contest. Not answering a tweet is like not answering the phone. Make sure you have systems in place to monitor all social media interaction as quickly as possible. If someone prompts a conversation, it’s up to you to continue it. Engage. Churning out messages and responding when prompted isn’t enough on social media. Genuinely effective strategies ask questions, prompting comments, and engage the rest of the market.
Content is king. Make your messages useful and
The 80/20 rule. When your marketing messages are too obvious on social media, your market will stop following you. Be 80% useful and interesting, and 20% promotional to strike the right balance.
Ski Trade Social Media Tips
French chalets and hotels must label their dishes
.SKI internet addresses to launch this season
Snowsports PR Company launches in Hong Kong
Sell your remaining chalet bedrooms on TripAdvisor?
New rules regarding homemade menu items will impact French restaurants, hotels, and chalets serving non-resident diners from now on. The French senate has approved the controversial ”fait maison” bill, forcing restaurateurs and hotels to label dishes made in-house using fresh ingredients. In turn, this means you might discover that your favourite tartiflette served at your local restaurant isn’t in fact made by Madame, as you’d imagined. There’s concern across France that restaurant standards are declining, and it’s hoped that the ”fait maison” bill will improve the country’s culinary offering to international tourists. Will you be highlighting your ”fait maison” menu items to your winter guests? Let us know at theskitrade.com.
It’s been in the pipeline for some time, but “.SKI” domain registration will commence this winter season, according to creators Starting Dot. There’ll no doubt, be a rush to purchase the most valuable domains when they go on sale in March 2014, but .SKI web addresses will only be available to snow sports community members and brands. Pre-registration for domains is currently available on the dot-ski. com website, where registering your interest is free and non-binding, and apparently tens of thousands of people have already done just that. Domains will be priced at under $100 (approx. £63), and a number of large industry organisations have signed up to support and endorse the project.
Carrie Salmon and Kirsty Mullens have set up a brand new Hong Kong-based venture, which will help promote UK snow sports businesses in the Far East region, called CK Ski. With over 16 years’ experience in the industry between them, they feel they are well placed to take advantage of the growing demand for winter holidays from both the established and growing markets in Asia. ”Our research into the Hong Kong and Chinese snow sports market has revealed huge potential, following the rise of outbound tourism,“ enthuses Salmon, ”and we want to help our snow sports clients leverage this. Whether it is a tourist board seeking to increase their awareness or a tour operator aiming to target segments of the market to convert sales, we can help.”
Many Alpine chalets and hotels are increasingly using online travel agents (OTAs), such as booking.com and lastminute.com, to fill unsold bedrooms during the winter season. For some, the reliance is much heavier in the late season and summer months. Guest review website TripAdvisor has now stepped into the accommodation sales market with TripAdvisor Connect. Businesses pay a fee to be listed, enabling travellers to book online through their TripAdvisor subscription, and then face a payper-click fee too. Is it becoming increasingly impossible for independent ski accommodation owners to use these sales channels? Can your margins afford an average commission fee of 18%? Have your say at theskitrade.com.
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Issue 02 | November 2013
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SWEETSPOT SKI TRAINER THE KEY TO GREAT SKIING!
DYNAMIC, CENTRED BALANCE IS THE KEY TO GREAT TURNS. CHALLENGING, QUICK AND FUN TO USE FOR ALL ABILITIES, AND PROVEN TO TRANSFORM SKIING PERFORMANCE
Patrick Thorne Columnist Ski resorts have long since known that being ‘environment-friendly’ is not only good for PR, and perhaps food for the long term sustainability of the communities where they exist, but can also save money. A decade ago, if a resort decided to go around retro-fitting low-energy light bulbs on timer switches to ‘cut emissions’ (… but also quickly cut costs), it was seen as a news story, now, as energy costs have continued to spiral, it’s a case of “well they’d be mad not to!” The bigger spend, announced year after year, is on energy efficiency in snowmaking, a business which not only costs the average top tier resorts many millions of pounds to install, but also a similar amount in energy consumption each winter. Having spent huge sums on installing and expanding their snowmaking systems, resorts are now spending again on retro-fitting new systems which can dramatically cut energy consumption by up to 80% and thus pay for themselves within a few years, while also reducing environmental impact. Sunday River in Maine, for example, has announced a $5.7 million dollar spend on increased snowmaking this season by installing 200 new energy efficient snowguns manufactured by HKD Snowmakers, as part of the resort’s commitment to improved snowmaking, while using less energy. Things are gradually moving forward with ski lifts too. Not only are more than 100 ski areas now supplied with 100% green energy they either make themselves with, for example, hydro plants (Whistler), or methane gas-to-powder plants (Aspen,
Colorado) or solar arrays (Werfenweng, Austria ) or giant wind turbines (Berskshire East, Massachusetts,), several are now installing ski lifts that generate more electricity than they use. For example, a new conveyor lift from manufacturer Sunkid in Austria’s Ziller Valley generates more power than it uses, thanks to an array of 74 solar panels along the top of the translucent weather protection gallery that runs along the 180m length of the lift. “The new Moving Carpet Gallery enclosure equipped with solar panels produces more green power than it actually requires. The excess 6000 kWh of green energy electricity can then be provided to the power grid,” confirmed project manager Manuel Kammerer. For larger lifts we’re not quite there yet but getting closer. Doppelmayr’s new Schwarzeckbahn eight seat chairlifts with heated seats, locking safety bars and pulldown weather protection hoods at Lofer, Salzburgerland in Austria has 240m2 of photovoltaic cells on the south facing side of its base station providing a sizable chunk of its power requirements. Another new lift, the six-seater Hüttenkopfbahn chairlift which runs to the top of Golm Mountain in the Montafon ski region in Vorarlberg and also has heated seats, child-friendly footrests and pull-down weather protection hoods, has put a figure on it and notes that it is able to meet a third of its total power requirement (180,000 kWh p.a. for 1,000 operating hours) from photovoltaic cells integrated into the glass at the sides of the lift stations. So, we’re not quite there yet with ski lifts, but the speed of development is breath-taking and it appears to be only a matter of time.
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November 2013 | Issue 02
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Bored Of SNOWboarding? Not On This Side Of The Pond
Amie Postings Co-Editor Suggestions that snowboarding was on the wane came trickling out of the US last winter. Equipment sales had dropped by 21% The New York Times told us. Participation rates had decreased by 22% said Time magazine. Some even claimed that Shaun White’s drunken antics in a Nashville hotel were to blame for the decline of an entire industry. Will Europe follow suit? Evidence from almost every corner of the snowboarding community suggests that snowboarding continues to be the winter sport of choice for as many Europeans as ever
before. This October, global sports giant Adidas has launched its first snowboard boot and outerwear collection, while Nike has spent big on this winter’s ”must see” movie Never Not. We doubt they’d bother to invest if the industry was shrinking. Yes, we have the supremely talented James Woods hitting up the park on twin-tip skis and surely heading for Olympic glory, and there’s no doubt that this will inspire both adults and children to give skiing a go. But am I about to swap my trusty steed for a pair of planks as a result? Absolutely not. Jeremy Sladen, Snowboard Operations Manager at The Snowboard Asylum (TSA) is a lot more confident heading into this winter
season than he’s been in a long time. ”For sure it’s been a difficult couple of years. We can trace the drop in snowboard hardwear sales to the start of the recession, when women’s sales fell off a cliff. The youth demographic were hit hard and there was a huge oversupply issue.” TSA report a lot of early season interest in snowboards, particularly for freeride brands over jib focused boards. A poll taken at Chill Factore in Manchester in August found a 350% increase in snowboard take-up levels during the first 6 months of this year, mainly due to 50+ ”silver snowboarders”. Over at Burton Snowboards, the Riglet Park concept is rolling out across Europe, with the aim
of teaching snowboarding to really small kids using a unique Riglet Reel – a retractable cord attached to mini shredder’s snowboards. There’s plenty of innovation in the hardwear market too. It’s easy to remember a time when splitboards were homemade contraptions, made using someone else’s instructions and a lot of old kit. Jones, Voile, Burton, GNU and K2 quickly responded to demand from the market, giving snowboarders as much access to the backcountry as their skiing counterparts. This development continues and we’re pretty much guaranteed exciting new products each season. Have your say at theskitrade.com.
Ski Weekends chalet host courses a huge success
Win a ChaletManager for a whole year!
Does a World Snow Award affect business?
Cheaper transport for your seasons baggage
For the second autumn in a row, Ski Weekends has run a successful chalet host cookery course for wannabe season workers at their chalet in Morzine. The week-long course trains students in chalet essentials, including cookery, menu planning, shopping, cleaning, accounting, and that all-important introduction to resort life, improving their employment prospects significantly – they quickly learn that being a chalet host is nothing like the movie Chalet
Reservation software provider ChaletManager is giving away a full year’s system access to one lucky chalet operator. If you’d rather do less work in your office, and more play in the powder this winter season ( just like chalet operator Charlie Bulbrook on page 8), ChaletManager’s comprehensive ”red” package offers full access to all system functions, including reservations, guest relationship tracking, report sharing, maintenance logs, airport transfer scheduling, bookings calendars, and a lot more. To enter the competition visit chaletmanager.com/ competition, enter your name and e-mail address and wait until 30 November. A winner will be chosen at random after this date, just in time for the start of the new season.
The second annual World Snow Awards takes place in London on 1 November this year, good luck to all the winter sports businesses shortlisted. What impact does winning a World Snow Award have on a business, we wondered? Virginie Dupe, Press Officer at Avoriaz 1800, winner of ”Best Family Resort” in 2012, told The Ski Trade, ”Winning the award in November meant it was too late for us to measure the impact in terms of visitor numbers, but we did receive many media mentions in France and in the UK, therefore improving awareness of the resort. The press coverage was also undoubtedly reassuring for families who were in the process of choosing their ski resort.”
UK-based transport company Deliveries to the Alps makes two trips to the French Alps each week, and it has launched a new seasonaire package for winter. Rather than carry a whole season’s worth of kit to the mountains by plane or coach, Deliveries to the Alps collect from your home address, drive it to your season pad, collect what’s left at the end of the season, and drive it back home. The weight allowance is 30kg per bag, everything’s insured, and prices start from £68 return. They also transport other items too, from sofas to washing machines, and snow tyres to snowboards. For more info and a quote, tweet Andy at @deliveryandy.
Girl!. Ralph Chatburn, Overseas Manager, explained, ”We train some excellent candidates who are really committed to working in the industry. We invite chalet operators to meet and interview the candidates here in Morzine. This year, pretty much all of them received job offers by the end of the week.“ Find out more at skiweekends.com.
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Issue 02 | November 2013
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Safety In Numbers The growth in safety equipment has helped brands fill a gap in sales – but how far can it go before things start to get dangerous for the industry again? The growth of sales in off-piste safety equipment is booming. According to Snowsports Industries America, 2012 saw a 19% increase in sales of backpacks, transceivers, shovels and probes. More new safety tools are being introduced into the market, and this winter we’ll see an increased amount of riders with avalanche airbag systems on their backs. Despite the price, sales of these systems are booming. But does the increase in the different types of safety equipment marginalise skiers without them? Or indeed put people off skiing altogether, because it gives the impression it's a dangerous sport? I put this to Henry Schniewind of Henry’s Off-Piste in Val d’Isère, France. ”No. The high visibility of safety equipment helps to make
people more aware of the danger and realise that there is the need to take precautions. This can only be a good thing. Knowing that there is safety equipment out there may even encourage newcomers to take up off-piste skiing.” But how can skiers or snowboarders continue to purchase every piece of safety equipment, and where will it end? We made some rough calculations to see what it would cost for someone without any safety equipment to get fully kitted-out with what’s now considered to be ”essential kit” for off-piste skiing. Approximate retail price of safety equipment Backpack with airbag system: £600 Transceiver: £200 Shovel and probe: £100 Helmet: £90 Back protector: £70 ”You can’t put a price on your life” is a phrase that’s
often used. But the point is, how far can the industry push it before the cost simply becomes too much, even to help save your life?
of survival rates at 97% for those caught in an avalanche and deploying their airbag. Also, there are plenty of places where you can rent them from if you are only going away for a week a year.”
I spoke to Sam Noble of Noble Custom, distributors of Ortovox in the UK, and asked him if skiers and snowboarders can continue to justify spending money on new safety equipment. ”I don’t think they have to spend more money than they did 10 years ago. The essentials you need to go into the back country (transceiver, shovel, probe and pack to carry it) have not increased in price, in fact the cost has come down. The reason that people are thinking they are having to spend more money is that more and more people are going into the backcountry, and also the message has got out that these items are essential, not luxury items.
Another new development on the market is from US company Icedot. It has two separate safety products that are both suitable for snow sports. The first is a band that the rescue services use to retrieve crucial medical information from victims unable to communicate due to trauma. The other is a crash sensor that’s built into a helmet. This sensor is designed to set off an alarm that informs the emergency services of your location in the event of a serious accident that has left you unconscious. The company has partnered with POC Helmets, and the device alone retails for $150 (£94).
There has been a big growth in avalanche airbag sales recently and it’s where there is some justification required, as it is a big spend, but one which can clearly be justified with the statistics
So what’s next? How far will we go to protect ourselves out there, when ultimately there’s no absolute guarantee of staying safe – unless we don’t go outside at all?
ChaletManager allows us to more effectively manage our bookings and client information...specific to our very ‘specific’ industry! Olly & Emma Lambourne, Mountain Mavericks, Morzine
ChaletManager just got bigger... And better, of course. A slick new interface has been launched along with the ability for guests to pay for their holiday via their own secure MyBooking area. These are just two of the hundreds of new features that we have launched over the summer. Joining real-time availability on your website,
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a MyBooking area for guests to enter their details, transfers, finance, expenses, reporting and so much more. Contact us for a free trial and see for yourself.
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November 2013 | Issue 02
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My Work Life Balance Is Spot On!
Feature Sponsored By
Charlie Bulbrook, Alpoholics I’d been working for a high-end tour operator for a couple of seasons, and with a hospitality degree under my belt and lots of friends in the snowboard industry, I knew I could offer a different style of chalet holiday. I took the plunge in 2011–12, with my first catered chalet in La Plagne. I wasn’t naïve enough to imagine endless days riding powder, before nipping back to the chalet to whip up a quick dinner for my guests – I knew from experience that there’d be a lot of hard work involved. At the same time snowboarding and the mountains are my life, I still wanted to have time to enjoy them. An important segment of our target market are ex-seasonaires, consequently I usually take my guests to the best bars, get them seasonaire drinks prices, take them to
the coolest resort events… they really get a different holiday experience. Of course, this makes my winter sound like loads of fun. But in reality, I’m still running a business and I use the ChaletManager software system to help me. Admin is probably the most timeconsuming part of my chalet business. I could just about keep on top of reservations admin before, but with increased capacity for this coming winter season, I’m juggling a lot of reservations at any one time. And, of course, the enquiries and reservations don’t stop when the season starts. The “enquiry” function in the ChaletManager system means I can log all potential reservations and chase them up really easy from wherever I happen to be in the world – be it a
chairlift or a deckchair. I’m basically carrying my reservations system around with me at all times, and this gives me loads of freedom during the summer and inter-season months. ChaletManager will save me a lot of time this coming winter, and that’s essentially why I use it in my chalet business. I can reinvest this time in making sure that my chalet guests have loads of fun during their holiday, or I can head off into the backcountry by myself for some wellearned me time!
ChaletManager www.chaletmanager.com Alpoholics: www.alpoholics.co.uk
A Growing Market: Student Ski Trips receive more and more enquiries year on year. We see no reason for this not to continue. The work that Wasteland and other tour operators have done to help snow sports societies across the UK grow has undoubtedly had an effect on the market.
How are you managing this increasing demand? We’re adapting to deal with increased competition and increasing expectations. Maintaining a high level of service is key, as is driving new product innovation. The summer market is also an area of interest for us, while our events management division is responsible for many exciting on-snow events, such as the British University Snowsports Championships, which this year will be held at Alpe d’Huez in France.
Last winter 15,000 university students and graduates took an organised snow sports trip with student ski specialist Wasteland Ski. It seems the increasing cost of higher education, and a slow economy, aren’t enough to dent the growing university ski market. This year’s Crystal Ski Report showed a similar trend. While the schools and students segment overall shrank by 2%, when measured independently, the student ski market is growing. As Wasteland Ski Small Groups Sales
Manager Laura Wilkinson explains, this growing demand could fill an important gap in off peak weeks for many resortbased suppliers.
How has demand for student ski trips changed? Wasteland Ski began in 1992, taking a few hundred students from the Royal Agricultural College to Val d’Isère. Its aim was to take the elitist sport of skiing and make it available to mere
mortals, breaking the stereotype of the sport. Its goal remains the same after 21 years – to provide affordable, truly memorable holidays so trippers grow to love snow sports. Last year 15,000 students joined the company on trips to 11 different resorts.
What demand levels are you experiencing now? The student snow sports market is undoubtedly blossoming, and we
How do you work with your resortbased suppliers in the Alps? We’ve built excellent relationships with them all; from lift pass offices to accommodation providers, restaurants and bars. They know we’re a company they can trust, and we’re extremely grateful for the great service that they provide to our student trippers. Our only issue right now is stock. With constantly increasing demand we’re always on the look out for new resortbased suppliers.
How can suppliers get involved in the market? The student ski sector of the winter sports market is growing, and we’re always looking for new products to compliment the Wasteland Ski range. We’re looking for new resorts, and higher quality accommodation stock, such as chalets for the graduate market. There are many opportunities for resort-based suppliers if they get involved now as the market expands.
How does the future look for the student ski market? There’s no doubt that it’s evolving into a more “event-based” trip market, where a ski or snowboard holiday also includes a large event or music festival, either on- or off-piste, in resort. We believe that this attracts a greater number of beginners, which is fantastic for the snow sports industry as a whole, both now and in the future. Our “Tignes Takeover Week” in December for example, brings 1500 students from multiple universities together for a fantastic experience on the snow. For many this will be their first snow sports holiday, and we want them to get hooked! Contact laura@wastelandski.com for more information on working with the student ski market this winter.