Research carried out on behalf of “the world’s largest online travel community” has revealed that 66% of Brits interviewed have never been on a ski or snowboarding holiday.
Wintersports participation in the UKL was the lowest of the seven European nations which were covered by the survey, with 40% of British people saying they avoided winter sports due to the high costs.
In comparison to the UK only 22% of French – 48% of Italians – 38% of Spanish – 28% of Germans – 17% of Austrian and 14% of Swiss people said they have never gone on a winter sports holiday.
The UK also had the lowest percentage of citizens that had tried skiing at any point in their life with just 37% having done so. Those who had been skiing generally went at a young age with their school (35%), family (44%) or friends (51%).
“The findings generally depict Brits as an anomaly in regards to winter holidays, accumulating entirely inverted results when compared to their European counterparts,” a spokesperson for HolidayPirates, which published the results, said.
For Brits who had partaken in a winter sports holiday, the survey suggested that their relationship with nature was their motivation. When asked what they liked most about winter sports holidays 45% answered that they enjoyed the fresh air and the mountains (ranked 1st) and 34% went for the snow (ranked 2nd).
The study was carried out by HolidayPirates which says it is one of the fastest growing travel companies in Europe with 7.7 million Facebook fans, They interviewed 19,188 people across Europe including 2073 in the UK.
