Following the cold snap in England last week, ski holiday company Sunweb report that they have seen a 95% increase in search traffic for ski holidays.
Sunweb say that this shows that after the warm September and first half of October, winter holidays are now firmly on the mind of consumers.
But are the searches translating into bookings?
French Chalet holiday company Ski Beat say that September was a particularly busy month, but that “…things tailed off slightly with the warm weather in early October.” However…
“Over the past couple of weeks we are seeing weekly bookings running at around twice what they were at the start of the month. This is to be expected at this time of year, particularly with the cooler weather now in the UK, and the positive snow forecast in the French Alps with snow expected in the next few days,” said the company’s Sales & Marketing Director, Laura Hazell.
(Ski Beat’s Chalet Vallon Blanc in La Tania)
Ski holiday agency SNO.co.uk says their bookings are up too but notes that its ski holidays by rail where they’re seeing the biggest jump in business.
“Booking are up over a third since the UK temperature dropped but the big increase is in enquiries for skiing by train, which are double that of last year,” said SNO’s boss Richard Sinclair (below).
Another online ski travel agency, Heidi, report their bookings moving in the right direction as well.
“Bookings to self-catering apartments are up by over 80% year-on-year for Heidi, and in France this is over 110%. It seems the cost of living challenges are not holding people back, but skiers are finding the best value way of still getting their ski fix.” Marcus Blunt, Co-Founder of Heidi
Image top credit: Karolina Grabowska
